Last of Us
by OnlyHuman1423
Summary: When a population control virus, planned to be released next century, is unexpectedly discovered to be stolen, hell breaks loose in the country. Later, a deadly subway crash releases the virus, turning over half the population into undead stragglers. Tris and her family, along with many others, find that they're immune; only able to be turned by a bite or scratch. EVENTUAL FOURTRIS
1. Chapter 1

I never meant for this to happen, becoming family-less in this place we call life is unbearable yet somehow we manage. Anything that could've, should've or would've been is completely and utterly gone. And this is how it happened.

"_We all die. The goal isn't to live forever; the goal is to create something that will." Chuck Palahniuk._

**A/N- hey everyone, this is my new story! I hope you like it… you already know what it's about as I'm sure you've read the description (I hope), so ya, it may be slow going, but I promise it'll get interesting really fast, because I have tons planned for this story and the updating should be moderate. Some of the situations in this story are my own, or others, obviously without the apocalypse part, but similar, so please don't steal my work. Thanks for reading!**

_I stood on the outskirts of the accident, just watching, unsure if I was really alive or dead; or in between, if that even exists. I supposed I'd find out soon enough. I watched from the outside, from the tree line, our old SUV shoved under the depths of an old gas track. I realize what is going on; my family is in that car, all of them. Caleb, Adrian, my mother and father. And everyone, that's all I had left… beep… beep… beep…_

I shutter awake, my eyes quickly fluttering open; the sweat drips off my flesh like raindrops falling from the clouds above. I shoot up from the bed, taking a look around my room to see the rising sun peering through my windows, and then I collapse to the floor.

I take in a deep breath, as tears stream from my face, almost as fiercely as the sweat. "It was a dream, just a dream." I tell myself, although the fear continues to creep in that it will eventually become reality; it will eventually become real, and I could not live through that, having no one. "Just a dream" I assure myself.

When I finally decide to drag myself up from the floor, I get dressed, remembering that I only have about 30 minutes. I take a very quick shower, first striping the nearly drenched clothes from my body. I look at my body in the mirror; I see a girl, who's not skinny, but she's not fat by no means. I see a girl, who's lost.

I get in the shower, rinsing the sweat and grime from my body, washing the filth from my long hair. After about 10 minutes, I get out, quickly drying off. I throw on light acid wash jeans with rips covering the front, a black off the shoulder long sleeve shirt with the word 'hope' printed on it in white, and black combat boots. I went sparingly on the make-up, putting just a bit of mascara, and putting my hair up into a messy ballet bun.

Luckily, it doesn't take me long to get dressed, and I go down stairs to feed my beautiful rotty pup, Bella. I had begged my dad for a dog for as long as I could remember, and on my birthday a month and a half ago, I finally got one. I was in love.

I skip down the stairs, thoughts of this morning almost pushed from my mind, and feed Bella, giving her small words as a greet of good morning before being yelled at by my brother, Caleb.

"Beatrice, unless you wanna be late, let's git it on goin' girl!" He yells at me from the front door, the evidence of our previous life in Texas peering through. With his words, I quickly grab my bag, and rush out the door.

I jump into my brother's red, rusty old work truck, of which I am in no way ashamed. "All ready ta go Tris?" I just nod, and he handles the stick shift to gear.

Currently not in the mood for anyone's jibber jabber, I put my headphones over my head, pressing play on my iPod. So ya, my headphones aren't Beats, or anything more that a ten-dollar pair that I got at Target; everyone bases things on what you have, and how much it costs.

I skip until the song that practically represents my life comes on. Let's Be Friends by Emily Osment. Why it represents my life, you ask? Well only because I had the biggest crush in the world on a guy in my gym class, just to be told that I'm a 'southern belle' and 'not good enough for him', only for him to turn and date my ex-best friend who's now a total slut, and cheats on him every chance she gets. Oh, but lets not forget that his family loves her.

And if only the story of my life could be told in a sentence.

We pull up to the school, Woodbridge High School, and I sadly climb out of the truck. Seconds before I slam the door shut, I hear Caleb call my name. I tear the headphones from the top of my head, allowing them to rest around my neck. "Ya?" I ask, in a breathy voice.

"…Just be careful, don't get yourself into trouble. Ok?" he assures. Since we moved here, to Pennsylvania, I guess you can say I've been getting myself into some trouble; a lot more than I did back in Texas, but you can't exactly blame me. I just nod again.

He just looks at me warily, before nodding, as if assuring himself of something; he puts a small smile on his face. Also fake may I add; I know better. "I love you lil sis, jus' want ya to stay safe. Don't get inta no trouble now"

I nod again, "love you too Caleb, I'll see ya later" I reply, before slamming the door shut.

Turning around, I lift my headphones back up, over my head as I listen to more songs. I quicken my pace across the road, onto the entryway into the school. I walk simply to my locker, considering I don't have much time. Making it to my locker, I put in my combo, spinning the tiny nod right, left, then right again, before it pops open.

Grabbing my books, I walk all the way to the other side of the school to my homeroom class. "Hey, Tris, wait up!" I hear despite the blaring sound in my ears. Once again tearing the headphones from my head, I decide to just turn off my iPod, as class is about to start.

I turn around to see my best friend, Christina. She has helped me through everything since I've moved here, and I can honestly I don't trust anyone more. "Yeah?" I ask, putting a smile on my face despite the dream this morning.

"Oh… you wanted me to say something?" she asks, dumb-founded. She may not be the uh… smartest tool in the shed, but she's all right. "I just wanted you to wait for me… I hate being the last one to class, everyone stares at me"

I just shake my head and laugh, as we set off to homeroom. We go through the typical routine of the news, pledge, then everyone practically throwing their chairs on the ground to get out. My first the three periods are quite boring, I must say; starting my day out with World History, Geometry, and Biology. Then fitness/health.

Fitness/health is only fun when we're in gym, not health, obviously. I make my way to the gym to get changed to play hockey. It disgusts me, most girls get dressed into really tight shorts, and a shirt that might as well not be there. I honestly don't care what I look like, or what people say about me. I'm me and no one can change that.

At lunch; I actually ate today, and I zone back into my friends arguing about who's going to go up and throw their stuff away, all of them afraid to go up alone. I finally burst from their arguing, "Why the hell are you guys so afraid to take your shit up alone!"

"Because _Trisss_…" Lauren whines, probably the brattiest girl in school and if it was my choice, she'd stay in first grade, "the guy I like is over _thereee"_ whining again, in that same high-pitched, annoying voice, "and I don't want to walk in front of _himmm"_

I roll my eyes. I am so tired of these people, of this freaking _place_! "Ya? And the guy I used to like is over there" I point; they all know what happened, "if you're that scared to be yourself, then damn you!" I burst, taking my stuff and throwing it, before grabbing my bag and leaving.

I sadly don't have lunch with Christina; she'd _never_ act like that. Granted, she may lack some common sense (even though I think she fakes being stupid and clueless), but she's not stupid. All these people who complain so much, who're scared of every molecule are pathetic. They've got no idea what they have.

After roaming for ten minutes or so, I realize that I've only got a few minutes left. I make my way to lay on the bench beside my class; until I hear footsteps behind me.

The squeak of tennis shoes on the scuffed up tile, as if someone were running. I turn to see the person I'd least like to see appears. He flashes a smile as if it'd make it all better, it won't. Nothing could ever get me back there.

"What do you want _Four_?" I sneer. He looks appalled, but I can't tell if that's fake or not.

"No… you can't use my name like a weapon against me _Six_… not anymore" sneers in return "and besides, Is it illegal for me to talk to you now Tris? -" I cut him off there.

"No, you're not allowed to call me that, not anymore" _not after what you did_, "And yes, unless you actually have a legit reason to talk to me. Leave me alone. I have no business with you" I answer, turning around to walk away.

"Just wanted to see what was wrong… you weren't acting like yourself today in gym… then I saw you yell at Lauren… thought you all were friends, that's all" he says, smiling again.

I'm amazed by the sheer willpower this boy has, I thought I made it clear the last time to leave me alone. "Well, I'm surprised you noticed, much less cared. And in case you forgot, no, we're not. You know as well as I do that those girls are brats, but you must be into that now; don't know, and I honestly don't care" I say, and I notice he's closer to me, smiling wider. He's such a creep, how is this normal to him?

He reaches to grab my hand, but before he could I pull my hand back, pressing my hands against his chest and push. He really has changed. "The hell Four?" I screech, "just because your girlfriend cheats on you, doesn't mean I'm going to let you cheat on her, with me. I am not one to wish death upon someone, but you can go to hell!" I burst, and before he could respond, the bell rings.

I internally smile. Perfect timing. I'm surprised he didn't try going after me, but of course with the crowd, it's be almost impossible.

The rest of the day went without anything, which was actually kind of surprising considering I have another class with him. I guess he was still as shocked about my outburst as I was, which I'd take any day… I've been waiting to say something to him like that.

As the final bell rang, I took my time packing my stuff back up, and going to my locker; avoiding the stampede of teenagers that always happened at this time.

I walk out the doors to see the buses leaving and my brother parked in front. He always drops me off and picks me up. I get in, and we have the typical conversations, "how's your day?" "Good, you?" "Good" Quite boring, I must say.

On the ride home, the events of today play over in my head and it's shortly before we reach home. As soon as we get home, I jump out, ready to start my normal chores and homework… same routine, different day.

I go inside, dropping my bags in my room. I grab a quick drink and go to the basement to check the baby bunnies; they were born a few days ago. When I get to the basement, I notice the door is open, which leads outside. "Adrian!" I yell after my little sister, "You need to close this door"

I go into the small five by three cellar room, and close that door that leads outside. Then close the door leading from the cellar to the basement. As I twist the handle, closing the door, I hear almost growling sounds from behind me, "very funny Adrian" I mumble.

I truly thought it was Adrian, just messing with me; but as I turn around I see this… _creature_. No idea what it is, my first instinct is to run, so I did, and I scream. I scream at the top of my lungs if not louder if that's possible. Screaming for my dad, or for help.

**Chapter 1 Part 2 Below**

As I reach the top of the stairs, I don't know if the thing is following me or not. I run into the living, by this point just catching my breath and I'm almost appalled. My dad is sitting on the couch, watching the news I assume, from what it looks like and my mom… just laying there.

"Dad… what's going on?" I ask, walking towards the front of the couches to see his fast, it's blank. I listen to the news further; the only words I'm able to pick up throughout the panic are: virus, undead, bitten, kill, immune… amongst others.

At that point, my dad stands. "Beatrice, I need you to listen to me, very carefully" he says, quietly, "get your sister, and brother… pack supplies, food, water, clothes, batteries, weapons… whatever you think is important… if we haven't turned already, then we're immune, but we're not safe…" he leans down to me, and hugs me, causing me to tear; _what is going on? _"From now on Tris, we are never safe, and if anything happens I need you to take care of your sister." He stands up right again, "now go… we only have a few minutes, and be quiet"

I only nod. I turn towards the stairs, but I hear a click behind me. As I make it to the stairs, I go up about half way, and stop where it curves; I watch my dad. The click I had heard was a pocketknife. He had tears streaming down my face, steadily, he obviously knew much more than he told me. He sat on the couch, next to my mother; I see his mouth moving, mumbling something, but I have no idea what he's saying.

Then tears strike my eyes; my dad sticks the pocketknife into the temple of her head, killing her. He gently wipes the blood from his knife onto his jeans, before snapping it shit, and returning it clipped to his back pocket.

The tears are steadily streaming down my face at this point, one after one. She must have turned; she must not have been immune.

Ignoring the burning sensation inside of my chest now, each step adding fuel to the fire. I run to my brother's room, to Caleb. I barge into his room, without knocking; I see him sitting on his bed, watching TV. Before I can speak, he beats me to it.

"I know" is all he says. I only nod, "go get Adrian… you start gatherin' supplies," he says, standing up off of the bed and going to his closet. "Alright" I say, monotony.

As I turn to leave, he calls me back. He looks up to me, from his crouched position in front of the closet. "Under no circumstance, do you let Adrian out of your sight… whatsoever" I nod, and without further conversation; I go to find Adrian. '_I wouldn't dream of it' _I think

I make it to her room, to see her playing with her toys, without a care in the world; how it should me. I cherish the view for a moment, realizing that it will be a while before I see anything like it again.

"Adrian" I whisper, she looks toward me, "come on… we, uh, have to go…" I say, simply. She's too young, and this is complicating enough.

"To the store?" she asks, standing and going to her closet to get dressed. I only shake my head. "Then where?" she asks, her sweet, innocent voice pierces me. If only she knew.

I don't answer, I don't know how. So I only follow her lead in the closet, grabbing a bag and stuffing clothes in there, as quickly as I could; folded or unfolded. I can tell by now she's looking at me, wondering what I'm doing; thinking _mommy would never allow this._

If only she knew that 'mommy' was dead, because 'daddy' killed her because she was turning into one of _them. No_, I tell myself; no matter how angry I am, I can't tell her this; these things that'd tear her apart like they've done to me.

"Get one toy, and your blanket Adrian," I say after clearing her closet. She must've picked up the sense of urgency in my voice, and quickly picked out a doll that I gave to her when she was little and her blanket that she's had for, forever it seems like.

After the toys are picked out, I go to my room, repeating the process. Clearing the closet, and getting important items like my phone, and a picture of the family.

I put the two bags on the bed, and leave the room; waving my hand for Adrian to follow. We both go down the stairs; I keep Adrian to my left, away from my where my mother would've been, but her body is gone.

I quickly put the thought to the back of my mind, and go to the kitchen. "Sit at the table, munchkin" I tell her, adding the nickname as my attempt to keep things normal; it didn't work, but she still takes her seat. I get boxes and begin packing food, cans and boxes of food.

As the boxes are nearly full, I had to climb on top of the counter in order to reach the back. I inspect the cabinets to be sure that I got everything, and I did, but on my last search I see a bag of the mini marshmallows sitting in the very back corner of the cabinet, alone. I know I shouldn't; I know I shouldn't get stuff like that, I should focus on stuff that will help us, but Adrian loves them. So I throw them in the box.

Along with the food, I pack batteries, blankets, medical supplies, and other important stuff.

By the time I'm finished, Caleb is coming downstairs with his things. I go up to Adrian, and get down to her level to look at here. "Listen to me…" she nods, "I need to go load these things up, but I want you to stay here, ok?" she nods again, her eyes beginning to droop with worry. I turn towards the counter to get a knife, "daddy showed you how to use these, right?" again, she nods, "alright, if anyone, or anything comes in here, near you, I want you to use this, do not hesitate; and you scream, as loud as you can."

"Okay" is all she says, I can practically see the gears turning inside her head. I place the knife on the table, and turn to pick up a box from the counter. As I go to carry it to the truck, but I see Caleb holding a paper, a note; and he's evidently shaking. I set the box down, and go to him to see what the note says, but then I see why he's shaking.

Our father, hanging in the doorway that leads to the basement, dead; he hung himself. "Coward!" I scream, sliding down the back of the couch. I break down to a ball, on the floor; and I cry. "A coward!" I scream, over and over again, "you're a fucking coward!"

I don't know how long it's been, five, ten, thirty minutes; maybe even an hour. "Tris" I hear, my brother shaking me out of my trance. Before any words can be spoken, I stand, pick up the box I was previously carrying and go out to the SUV.

I go back and forth in the house, carrying boxes and bags. After packing the last box, I pass Caleb. "You and Adrian get in… I will be out there in no more than five minutes… and here" he hands me a pocket knife "if one of them comes up to you, or near you... kill them, do not hesitate, because they will not hesitate to kill" I nod, and he walks out carrying a bag of guns out.

After passing by him, I then go back in to get Adrian, I pick her up off the chair and walk her out to the car, and she complies without a word.

As I buckle her in, and make sure she is safe, she begins screaming; an ear piercing scream. I turn to see one of… _them; _one of the undead. I hesitate a little, before walking up to it; keeping my arm plenty of distance away from is it as I pull the red pocketknife out of my back pocket, open it, and stick it into what would've been the temple of its skull. It falls to the ground almost instantly and I stand there a minute to inspect it.

I can't say that the person it once was is unrecognizable, because I could almost see a real person despite the blood and dirt. But its teeth; its teeth are what disgust me to no lengths. You could almost see the torn flesh, and blood between them. Naturally, I throw up, disposing whatever I had for breakfast and bile.

Wiping my forehead of splattered blood, I spit once more, as an attempt to get the taste out of my mouth; it doesn't work. I turn back to the car and get it, sitting there for a moment to recover myself before Caleb appears through the doorway, splattered blood covered as well. Must've encountered the one that was in the basement.

He gets in, and looks at me. As he spotted the blood on me, I only nodded. _Yes, I killed one of them_. He jams the key into the ignition and turns, pulls out of the lot in front of our house, and drives.

Its maybe, an hour, probably less, before he pulls into a gas station; parking at one of the pumps, he gets out, slamming the door doing so. It's been a silent ride until now. I only sit there, and watch him do the typical routine also filling a few fuel cans; the only difference was that he didn't pay, he didn't have to, the world has already fallen apart.

As he walks back around, one of _them_ comes up, and without even a blink of an eye he sticks the knife into its head, doing as I did earlier, wipes off his face, and gets back in.

As if nothing happened, he leaves the abandoned station, as I just stare at him. "How can you kill them like that?" I ask, "they're people"

"No, They are not people Beatrice, and you cannot kill something that is already dead…" he replies, without looking at me.

And that is about as far as any conversations got.

About ten minutes later, I notice the white piece of paper on the dashboard. I pick it up to realize it is the note, from our father.

_I cannot apologize enough to you three for what I've done to you._

_Your Mother was not immune and became one of them._

_As for me? I just couldn't do this._

_I wasn't… am not… strong enough._

_Get to John and Zeke, as soon as possible. Take the back roads, highways will be filled. And stop at the first abandoned ammunition store you find, get more than you think you'll need. _

_Although I didn't believe in myself, I believe in you two; you should believe in yourselves too, that's the only way you'll get through this._

**A/n- So, pretty intense huh? Lol, well I'm not sure when the next update will be, these chapters take awhile to write because I want them to be perfect :P (**_**perfectionist me)**_** Enjoy and please, please, please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Last of Us- Ch. 2**

We've been driving on this road for god knows how long, if god even exists anymore with the hell he has put upon us. I had been reading the note from our now dead father over and over again. Hoping that he'd some how come back even with the situation that he's put us in.

As I come back to the realization that things are not going to change, that what we have, is all we're going to have; and that this is here to stay. I look on the road, at what looks like specks, but I know it to be more. Its people; living, breathing people… and _them_. The people, the normal ones, are fighting the walkers; and not doing very well, may I add. As we are nearing closer to the group of good and bad, I silently pray that my brother would drive by, and help them; but then again I hope he doesn't. I don't dare to say a word.

Closer, and closer we get; I notice that Caleb is really going by to help them, not necessarily a bad thing. As we near closer, the faces become clearer, and I slowly begin to realize who it is. Christina, her mom Tori, Will, and her brother Four. And lastly, Lauren, Four's girlfriend.

He pulls up beside them, rolling the windows. Pulling the gun that was previously perched against his hip, he fires twice, launching the bullets into each of the walkers' skulls. "Get in!" he yells towards them, signaling towards the bed of the truck, and they promptly get in, tossing their bags in first. Luckily, being from Texas, we used to go to the shooting range on a daily basis; needless to say my brother and I are a pretty good shot.

Caleb drives for another ten, to twenty minutes silently. I suppose we're all processing the current predicament, so to speak, and it'd be safe to assume, that some process slower than others. We finally pull into a little shop, the sign fallen and torn to shreds. He pulls around back, as an attempt to stay hidden; scanning the area, before placing his feet onto the black asphalt, that seems to sizzle under the recent summer sun.

As he gets out, I follow hastily along with the 5 tag-alongs in the back; the only remaining in the truck would be Adrian considering she's asleep. Caleb takes a seat atop the bed of the truck, and I take a spot next time him, the others gathered in front. "Alright, listen up," my brother begins, and I suddenly feel the butterflies of importance arrive in the pit of my stomach, "this is an amo shop, weaponry… Someone needs to stay out here, with Adrian and Lauren, considering neither of them can use a weapon; the others come with Six and myself, preferably whoever's familiar with a gun" he explains the plan, and I see Tori speak up, "I'd be willing to stay." You can feel the hesitation within my brother, wary of who, and who not to leave our little sister with; he eventually agrees.

Christina, Will, Four, Caleb and I all load up with the minimal amount of weaponry that we have, but it's enough. "Tori… I want you, and the girls to stay in the truck, do not move, talk or even breath heavily, and stay hidden. Do you understand?" he speaks sternly, because he knows he has to. Considering the mere inches of distance between the two, she only nods silently, before climbing in along with Lauren.

I stare for another moment or two, before turning on my heeling to take post next to the back door. Over the passed time, we came up with a plan. Discovering that the walker's are attracted to sound, before we go in, we will attempt to drawl any of them that are inside, out. Two, eventually three, of them come out of the building, and one by one we jam the knife into their skulls, effectively killing them if not dead already.

After the few that came out, are pulled out of the doorway, we go in. Someone pushing a door open, and three others surrounding the door to check and kill walkers. Surprisingly enough, the building seems miles long despite it looking like just a tiny corner shack on the side of a highway. We finally find what would be the main room, with many things all around the walls. Caleb signals for us to split up, and quietly tells us to collect anything that'd be of use.

Searching the side that was not already taken, as I walk back behind the counter, I gasp, loudly I suppose. "Oh my god…" I mutter, and on the floor I see what used to be Caleb and Four's old friend, Uriah. "Caleb" I holler out, barely above a whisper; he looks toward me, but before I wave him over, I decide against it. There is already too much going through our minds, his mind, and alarming him with the death of his best friend couldn't possibly help the situation so I decide to keep it quiet. There was now way I could place the guilt upon him. Maybe we didn't get here in time, and that was the cause of his death; or maybe that had nothing to do with it. I couldn't give those impossible questions to someone that'd go to extreme lengths to get the impossible answers.

Only shaking my head as a response, I turn back towards Uriah's body. Though I never exactly knew him, so I never found out his age, but he couldn't have been older than twenty, not even the legal drinking age; he had his entire life in front of him, but didn't, and for what? I feel an incredible wave of grief and guilt wash over me, how can I be like this for someone I hardly even knew? I can't. The question contains my inevitable answer, I didn't know him, therefore I should feel no grief, and no guilt; so why do I?

Despite every fiber inside of me telling myself to stop, my hand drawls closer to the boys' body. I reach inside the pocket of his jeans, silently, pulling out a wallet. Opening the old piece of leather, I reach inside; I don't pull out money, as most vandalists would desire, no; I pull out the photo inside of it, coincidentally a photograph of Uriah, Caleb, and Four at a park on my sisters birthday, back when they all used to be friends. Oh so many things have changed.

Shoving the photograph into my back pocket, I close the wallet, placing it back onto Uriah's chest before closing both of his hands together over his heart. I relish over the body, like a bit of a funeral that he'd deserve as I convince myself that I'm doing the right thing. _This is what he'd want, leave Caleb to take care of him and Adrian, _I convince myself, _but then again, I wouldn't know what he'd want_. The guilt steadily climbs itself through my chest, as I attempt to push it back down, to put it away; struggling to catch my breath through the fight.

I turn away for the last time and I quickly gather the items I'd need like amo, knife and guns, shoving them one by one into the army green cargo bag, making up for the lost time that I spent in my abyss. As I scan the wall, my eyes come across a cross bow, I pick it off the wall, slinging it over my shoulder, agreeing to myself that it'd be my weapon of choice, as I'd fallen in love with it years ago. Along with that, I push an 18" dagger into the holster placed on my hip, the black leather handle brushing the side of my stomach with each step I take.

As I finish gathering everything on my side, I turn to see the others talking, and I silently thank the world for not bringing them over to help me. "Damn Tris" my brother speaks, he was never fond of the nickname that I sometimes go by, Six. "Planning on participating in a massacre anytime soon" he jokes, as he places a smile on his lips. I only let a small laugh slip through, and can't resist letting the smile find mine too.

We promptly leave the building after gathering everything we could find. We quickly ease outside, one by one and as I exit the building I see a screaming Lauren, and the truck surrounded. Surrounded by walkers.

I sling the crossbow that was once on my shoulder, now the scope in front of my eye, as I shoot, aiming for the temple of their skulls, and hitting as many as I could when my hands are shaking with fear. As I aim at another one, and shoot, all I hear is a click; I realize I'm out of arrows, but the truck still has maybe six or seven of them surrounding it.

Peering inside through the window, I see Adrian just staring outside the window intently, and Tori attempting to settle down a screaming Lauren. Before I know what's actually happening, the door creaks open, and I see the little seven year old girl climb out; I watch my sister climb out. I decide that I cannot just stand here and watch, pulling the crossbow back across my shoulder; I yank the knife from its holster. Walking toward the last few walkers, I hear the calls of protest behind me as they stopped firing, in fear of hitting either Adrian or myself, but they're screams sound like a mile away, and it only calls the walkers closer.

The knife in my hand, suddenly finds its way into its skull, causing it to collapse. Before continuing onto the others next time, I immediately go to the one nearly on top of Adrian, as she falls to the ground crawling back. And for the first time, she screams. This seems to ignite something in me, and I jam the knife in before twisting.

Everything else at the moment appears to be gone, the other walker's, my brother, everyone. I fall to the ground along with the most recent kill, as I finally notice that I have blood splatters on my hands, arms and face. Not stopping me from continuing my current venture, I kneel next to the walkers. This woman… she would've been beautiful. I shove the knife into her forehead, once, twice, countless times, releasing the grief, guilt, pain, and sadness that I've felt within the last twelve hours. By the time someone pulls me of, the woman's face is no longer distinct, but almost gone.

Tears, streaming down my face, as the events play over me; over and over again. I look up from my own curled ball of self, to see Caleb scolding Adrian, whilst at the same time cradling her, praying to god that she'd never do that again. I stand only to be pushed back again by Four.

"The hell is wrong with you Beatrice!?" he screeches. I assume that he is referring to throwing myself out into the open, for the sake of my sister who'd put herself in danger by her own free will.

I only shrug before getting into the bed of the truck and taking a seat; we have to get going soon. Four, Lauren, Will, and Christina all get in the back with me, as Adrian stays up front, Tori and Caleb switching off to drive.

As we go down the road, the same road we've been on for what seems like hours. I stare at my hands, the same hands that are now dyed with crimson red blood. I sit with my back towards the cab of the truck, as Will and Christina lay against one another, sleeping; and Four and Lauren sit next to each other, talking, and stealing kisses when they believe I'm not looking, or maybe they know I'm looking, and they just don't care; I'd be willing to bet on that, considering our past.

Unholstering the knife from my side, I look at the blood on it, that woman's blood. I slowly slide the blade across my jeans, the only thing on my body that isn't covered with it; while humming an old folks tale song that my father taught me. I look around me to see Lauren scrunch her nose in a cringe. "Can you _stop_ that?" she sneers conceitedly, and this only pisses me off, considering she hasn't lost anyone in this mess; with no right to be telling me what I can or cannot do, considering we saved her sorry ass.

"Can you piss off?" I retort. There's no reply, and I take that as a good thing. My eyes flicker up for a split second, crossing Four's to see him watching me intently, as I continue to wipe the knife off along with my hands, and hum the tale as the sunsets.

_Are you, are you?_

_Coming to the tree?_

_Wear a necklace of rope,_

_Side by side with me._

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

_If we met at midnight_

_In the hanging tree.`_

**A/n- **so, pretty intense hm? Yea, so um not much to say, I do apologize for the length between updates, I just have to put a lot of work into these chapters, and I want them to be perfect along with my other stories, so I hope it pays off. Anyway, please review if you want anything specific to happen? I'm pretty open to any suggestions, the plan I have for this story is a bit vague. So anyway, ten reviews til next chapter please! That'd be amazing, thanks for reading! Until next time, bye~


	3. Chapter 3

Last of Us- Chapter 3

We make it to Arkansas before we finally run out of fuel, every station we've passed run dry. It's taken about a few days with Caleb and Tori trading off between driving and sleeping, and stopping anytime we find something useful. Though not surprising, I have barely spoken a word to anyone since the incident at the gun shop.

As I feel the truck begin to slow, stuttering due to its lack of energy, when I realize I feel the exact same way. Slow, and nostalgic, purely because I haven't eaten in the day, and maybe an hour or two of sleep, simply because every time I sleep, or even allow my eyes to flutter shut, the images of my father's lifeless, pale body hanging from the doorway, or watching the light leave my mother's eyes. It haunts me, like a ghost would. I've resulted in staring out of the side of the truck, watching the walkers, and people, who're suffering and obviously won't live more than another day or two, their bodies steadily thinning. Looking at the landscape, it strikes me as curious what this place will be in a month or two, if I live that long.

We finally pull to a halt, and I hear the front doors swing open. We're at least a day or two's walk from our destination in Texas. I take that as a sign to get out, I stand, stretching out my cramped, limp body before jumping over the side of the bed. I see the other's staring at me and I realize how ignorant they are. I roll my eyes before going around to the back, popping the hatch and dropping it.

Sitting on the edge, I wait for Caleb and Tori to come back around to tell us the plan. Not a moment later, as if replying to my request to hurry, they come around. They stand in front of us, Caleb with his arms across, almost locking me out, as I slowly begin to accept that this is how he must be to keep us safe, even at his own expense. At our relationships' expense. "Alright" he begins, slow in thought as if he has no idea what we're either, "we're obviously going to have to walk the rest of the way, which will be about a day or two" he speaks again as if reestablishing what I'd already said in my mind.

"Wait… We have to like… _walk?"_ Lauren asks, and I can't say I'm exactly surprised. Before Caleb answers her, I take it upon myself to deal with her idiocy "Well you're _more_ than welcome to stay here" I reply, before turning my eyes back to the previous location, on Caleb

"Anyway, we'd best get moving fast, it's about 8 A.M. now so we're loosing daylight, we'll rest at sun down, and start back up in the morning…" he finishes, and we all begin packing stuff up. I sling the crossbow that I obtained after discovering Uri's death, over my shoulder, and slide the dagger back into its holster. Packing my black hiking bag. By the time I finish everyone else is ready also, and begin walking.

It goes pretty uneventful for most of the day, and when I assume that it's around three or four o'clock, my legs begin to ache, and my stomach growls with hunger, but I don't dare stop, even though I wouldn't be the first to complain. I begin walking ahead of the group, in desperation to get somewhere, where I know where I'm going. We've passed cars on the highway, Caleb checking each and everyone one of them to see that they don't work either. As I round a corner, and climb a hill, I see over it, a group thousands upon thousands of them; the walkers. I turn around and see the others right behind me, from my delay, and I immediately stop them. "Don't go up there" I say, as calmly as I can. Caleb eyes me suspiciously, and I return the look, knowingly, and he only nods. I quickly release a breath I had no idea I was holding.

"Why should we listen to _her?"_ Lauren bursts loudly, and walks right past me, to the top of the hill. I see Four attempt to reach for her but fails. Allowing her to go overtop the hill next to me, and she scream. Loud.

I mutter explicit words under my breath, before turning around to see the pack coming toward us, fairly quickly so we must think fast. I immediately pull the dagger out of my holster before killing the few that had already gotten to us. I look over for a spare second to catch a glimpse of the others doing the same. As I continue to kill all the others- partly out of rage, and partly out of spite- I realize that I dig myself deeper and deeper within the pack, not able to dig myself out. Not sure how long I've been doing this, I take mere second glimpses of my surroundings, to see that there are still thousands of them around me, and there is no way I could kill them all without dying of exhaustion first, the lack of sleep weighing on me like a brick, dragging my eye lids down as I force them to stay open.

As I look behind me, back towards the road, I see Tori attempting to comfort Adrian in the only way she can, which are working, and I'm happy for that. But behind them, we both see a truck speeding towards us, at least 90 or 100 miles per hour. We both know that desperate times call for desperate measures in some people, and we immediately become wary of the group speeding towards us. I begin trying to fight my way out of where I've buried myself, to no success, without all of them clawing at me, drawling me back to their group, to join them.

My eyelids weigh down further, as our group scatters away from the truck, and the pack of walkers, no one left behind to save me from the mess I've created, as if I'd blame them. I am reckless. I finally give up, and let myself fall, only after I'd fallen, I would've assumed that I was dead, but I'm not. As I discover that I'm only barely awake by the skin of my teeth, I feel the walkers slowly release me, and someone pick me up. Someone saved me from my own hell, and for that I am grateful.

I slowly awaken to see the sun going down. I'm no longer being carried, but laying on a bed grass. If I hadn't known the world's current state, I'd be peaceful. "Oh, you're awake…" I hear a voice say, my savior's voice. I open my eyes further to see Four; I release an inner groan of despise, that I was unsure that I really had in me.

"Yeah…" I say quietly, almost a whisper, "where are the others?" I ask, finally remembering that we'd split up. I see my question weigh down on him, as he searches for the correct way to answer without hurting me, not that he should be worried about that; I can practically see the gears turning inside hi head.

"We… um got split up…" he answers simply, but he knows I want more than that, as my eyes ask the real question. Did my brother make it out? And I'm starting to think that I don't want the answer. "I don't know Tris" he begins, "Tori, Christina, and Adrian went one way, and Will went on his own, and of course you, Lauren and I… We can only hope Will joined one of them" he finishes, finally giving me the hard truth that I needed to hear. Warm tears stream down my face, one by one, but I don't dare speak, not with the pitiful, cracking voice I'd have. "He made it Tris… He's strong, you know that…"

"Yeah." Is all I say, he must realize that I want to be alone, so we keep to ourselves until the sun finally reaches the horizon, which is covered by trees. As I see him nodding off out of the corner of my eye, "get some sleep," I say finally, and he doesn't argue.

"Why did you save me?" I ask, in a whisper again, but with no response. He must already be sleeping

It kills me without a sense of time, because I'm not sure if an hour has passed, or ten minutes. My eyes closed as I think about what I'd be doing right now, if none of this happened, if this was all another one of my bad dreams. I'd be at Christina's house, talking about Four, and he talking about fashion, or makeup, or hot guys. And we'd be going to a party tomorrow night, where I'd be bored out of my mind, but enjoy it better than this. I finally realize that I'd taken everything, my entire life, for granted; and maybe, just maybe, that is why this happened.

My eyes still shut, but nowhere near sleep, I hear noises, footsteps. At first I think that I am imagining it, that I am already becoming delusional, but that can't be. The footsteps continue, then voices, confirming that it's not a bunch of walkers. I search my surroundings, look for places to escape when I see light in the distance, in the direction we need to go, we must go past them. I prepare to run until I remember that I am accompanied, I have to wake them before we can leave. I steadily walk to Four first, not daring to wake up Ms. Ignorance. I crouch next to him, to whisper to him, shaking him, to no prevail. I become desperate, the footsteps and voices become closer. I cover is mouth before whispering "Marcus" in his ear, as I know it's his biggest fear, it'll wake him up, and it does.

He quivers awake, eyes wide from the nightmare of his name. My hand still over his mouth, his eyes connect to mine as I hold my finger over my lips, and he nods. I see he becomes frantic, but I take my hand away from his mouth, to remove some of the tension, and luckily he remains quiet after the rude awakening. I point to my ear, for him to listen, and he does. He listens to the footsteps and the voices as they become clearer. He only nods, before pointing to Lauren, then our bags piled next to a tree. He wants me to get our stuff, while he wakes the beast that is Lauren.

I do as he says, as Lauren wakes grumpily. _I'm not sure how much more of her I can handle, _I sigh to myself as we walk. As the light becomes closer, I recognize it as a flame, and I'm suddenly thankful that we never built a fire. As we walk past what would be their camp, you see the usual stuff, bags, weapons, a fire, but then they have a walker next to their fire. The walker is missing a leg, which then causes me to notice what's over the fire. I'm immediately disgusted by the cannibalisms', if that's what they can even be called, but I keep walking for the sake of being the strongest.

"Hey!" a voice yells behind, and I realize that we've been caught. There's no point in being quiet now, "run!" I yell to Lauren and Four, and for once they listen in a mutual agreement that if we get caught, we'd get killed. One advantage of being younger than the men chasing us is that we are much faster. After running for a while, I spot a tower up ahead, a search tower, and immediately recognize this place as hunting grounds. I point to the tower, and we all continue to run to it.

It's only a good 20 paces there, and when we finally stop, we're all panting from exhaustion. "We need to find out where were at" I say after all the heaving pants have gone away, as I point to the top of the search tower about 30 feet up.

"There is _no_ way I'm going up there," Lauren snaps.

And I immediately want to laugh, "why? Are you… scared?" I ask, my arms crossed over my chest, as I lean back against the rope ladder attached to what looks like a tree stump.

"Of falling from thirty feet in the air. Yes" she replies, as a sneer.

"Suit yourself then, I'll go up myself…" I say, before I turn to begin climbing the rope.

"I can't let you go alone… there are probably walkers up there" Four says, following me up the ladder.

"Well you also can't leave your_ girlfriend_ down there defenseless, because you and I both know, she doesn't have a clue how to shoot a gun…" I say back, but by the time I answer, we're already half way up the rungs, and there is no point in turning back. The word _girlfriend_ causing bubbles of jealousy in the pit of my stomach, but I quickly push them away.

He was right, there were two walkers up there, but I handled them easily myself. As I look through the gaping, windowless hole in the small room, I see buildings in the distance. And I realize that we must've crossed the Texas/Arkansas border a long time ago. Those are the Dallas buildings. We have about a days walk ahead of us, and I can only hope Caleb and the others are on the same track as us.

"I saved you because I still don't know how I feel about you Tris… more that than anything" he turns to me and sighs. I can't believe he heard what I said. "But that and Caleb would never forgive himself, or me, if something happened to you…" he says before turning back, to exit the tower.

"Tobias…" I say, using his real name for the first time since we first began fighting to get his attention again, he turns back toward me, leaning against the wall, "next time" I begin, "…don't" and with those words, I see him appalled, so I take that chance to leave. I throw my life away too much to have other's doing the same for me.

As I scale down the rope ladder, I hear Lauren down below, screaming. I quickly jump from about the tenth rung up, landing on the mushy grass, as I hear my ankle pop, _that can't be good_, I think to myself, but remain silent to the pain. As I look around to see her behind the ladder, opposed to where she was previously, lying on her back, with on of the walkers over her, and another coming toward her. She holds them away from chewing her to death by mere inches.

I quickly sling my cross bow off my shoulder, after reaching for my knife, but I realized that it must've gotten stuffed into a bag, or left behind near the thousands of walkers. Taking the back end of my crossbow out to the front, not daring too shoot, considering my aim isn't the best in the world, and shooting her wouldn't help the situation. I pull the crossbow back over my shoulder and swing, allowing the end of the weapon to come in contact with its head. The blood splatters, and I'm almost happy that it covers Lauren causing her to screech like a pig. Loud and Annoying.

Going over to the other walker that is nearing us, I pull the crossbow back over my shoulder, ready to swing again. When I do, it has the same fate as the other, splattered blood- which gets all over me this time, not like I'm not already covered- and then it falls like a ton of bricks.

After catching my breath from the rush, I turn to see Four, whose helping Lauren up, who thankfully stopped squealing. Before I even have an idea what possess me, I walk up to her, and punch her. As my fist collides with her jaw, I feel a pop that I don't necessarily care about, there's no way I could've broken it, that wasn't even all my strength. "What I did wasn't for you, it was for Four… there is no way I can be in someone's debt at a time like this…" I spit out through my pants of exhaustion, "that will be the _first _and the _last_ time I save your sorry ass, you ignorant bitch!"

A/n- soo, how're ya'll? I'm good, I guess… I hope you liked it, took me awhile to write, and I'm trying to have longer, more detailed chapters, so let me know how I'm doing on that note… if you want, go read some of my other stories, they're probably not as good as this one, just because I'm spending a lot of time on this, but I'm trying… so anyway please, please, **please**, review, I'm** begging** now… **so 10 reviews for an update!** Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

Last of Us- Ch. 4

To say things have been awkward after the recent events of calling Lauren an ignorant bitch would be an understatement. To say that the guilt isn't eating me alive, because I don't know whether or not Caleb is even alive, would be even worse. The fact that I still feel the guilt of him, the guilt of knowing Uriah is dead, that I still feel like I owe Four even though I saved is _precious_ girlfriend, no matter how much I hate her.

We'd walked all night, in silence except for the crunch of the leaves under our feet in the woods. I'd get ahead, and climb a tree occasionally to be sure of our direction. As we near the high way, I stop, throwing my bags onto the ground near a tree, as the sun finally has risen. "What're you doing?" Four asks, but setting his bags down next to mine.

I point to the city before responding, "Highway's 'bout a mile up… We'd best get some sleep before crossing through the city, which would be crawling with walkers…" I answer steadily. The exhaustion sneaking up on me like a windstorm. We make the camp, setting out the two sleeping bags, even though I'd prefer sleeping sitting up; keeps me more prepared if we have to run. "I'm going to see if I can find some kind of food" I say, throwing my crossbow back over my shoulder, and the knife back into its sleeve, "if I'm not back in an hour, move on without me… If I'm alive, I'll find you in the city."

As I prepare to go, I sight the joyful smirk on Lauren's face; sadistic psycho she is. "I'll come with you…" Four volunteers, but I shake my head. As I turn, I realize just how close he got, my hand placed on his arm, but I quickly pull it away before anything else happens.

"Something happens, and none of us live. I can take care of myself, she can't" I reply, pointing towards Lauren, "and after last time, there is no way in hell you're leaving her alone again." I push Four back again, realizing that he'd taken another step closer to me.

Without another word, I leave. I can't listen to the arguments, even if he did know I was right. Most times I wonder where his loyalties lie, with Lauren, or himself. It's funny, really, how simple it is for me to throw my life away when I feel as if I have nothing to live for in the first place. I pull the bow back up to my sights, as I spot something in the distance. I move quickly, but quietly towards the movement. The attempt to quiet the leaving crunching beneath my feat is inevitably impossible. I near the movement, to finally notice that it's not any animal but a person, as I come closer, I realize that it's not just any person, it's Caleb.

"Caleb!" I yell, finally ignoring the moments of silence, as any chance of hunting fled off, but I don't care. As I'm only feet from him now, he'd turn to me, a smile on his face, and I feel one come to mine. The first time a smile had been on my in days, along with tears of happiness; and at that moment, I'd realized these would be the only times I'd ever be happy again in my life, when I find that my loved one aren't dead.

As I finally reach him, I wrap my arms around his torso, despite the dirty t-shirt, as I'm sure I look just as bad, but I don't care. He picks me up, his arms around me also, "I thought you were dead Beatrice" he whispers into my hair of sweat and tears, which I hadn't known that I had left in me. I only nod to his accusation, I'd say it back because it's true, but I won't; he's alive, and I know that now, and that's all that matters.

I finally let go and look behind him, to see he'd joined Tori, Adrian, and Christina. "Come on" I say, the smile still finding its way to my face, despite my attempts to suppress it, "The rest of us are back here…" As I walk them back, I find my crossbow on the ground, noticing that I'd dropped in on the ground when I found them. I quickly sling it over my shoulder like usual before continuing to walk.

We make it back to the group to find Lauren sleeping, and Four sitting with his back to a tree, poking and prodding the fire like a little kid, awaiting my return I assume. He looks up from his pleasures to see my company, his face lights up, "mom!" he says with about as much excitement as I had for Caleb, and I can only look over them and smile. They exchange words over how happy they are that the other is safe before he moves over to Christina, his sister, and doing the same.

After watching for a while, I finally greet Adrian to exchange small words about what she's been up to, nothing serious. I finally go over to Christina, both smiling at each other giddily, before crashing into a hug. I stand there for a minute, confiding all of our griefs with the other silently, just the tears and sniffling noses. Though without a word, we have a silent agreement almost to talk later, assuming that we both have a lot to talk about; no matter how long later will be.

We'd finally settled down, and I finally become tired, as I feel jittery. I slowly yawn, before leaning my head back against the tree behind. Caleb, who'd taken a seat next to me, spots me yawning "go to sleep," he says, being the strict big brother that I've always known. I lay my head against his arm, then tucking my legs under me, "Beatrice-" he warns, but I interrupt him.

"I am" is all I say, which is the last thing I notice before falling asleep, to where

When I wake up, it's about midday, and the sun's blazing heat causes my skin to turn red. I look around, to see everyone awake and packing up, and Four spots me, "Oh good, you're awake… I got assigned with the difficult task of waking you up, and I really didn't feel being hated for the rest of the afternoon…" he jokes, and I smile at his attempt to make me happy. I get up; ready to collect my things before we head to the city.

As we begin to walk, I take my place next to Caleb, planning to have some kind of decent conversation with him without tears welling up in my eyes. I begin with something simple, "how long was I sleeping?" I ask.

"Only an hour or two, I'm surprised you didn't sleep longer considering your track record" He smiles over to me; it must be one good day for everyone to make jokes.

"Yea, well I haven't exactly been getting the desired amount of sleep as I would like lately, I'm used to it…" I reply, before I immediately feel bad for ruining the joyous mood. I look over to see the small smirk still on his face.

"Well, when we get to John and Zeke, that'll all change… we'll be safe. Okay?" he says reassuringly, and I nod, putting the almost invisible smile on my face, whether it's for him or for myself, I don't know.

John and Zeke, John being my dad's ex-coworker when we lived in Texas, but we moved to New York because my dad had a job as a lawyer. And Zeke, who's 17 like Four, is my ex-boyfriend when we lived in Texas, granted I was only 11, so it didn't mean much. We started out as friends, and like everything else, it slowly became more; we tried to make it work after we moved, but it didn't, he ended up cheating on me. Right before everything with Four and Lauren happened, and that is when I realized that I have the worst luck with guys, but I got my best friend out of it.

Technically, Four and Christina are brother and sister. Tori had adopted Christina when she was only 10, right before Tori's husband left her. Christina and I were in sixth grade when I met her, we were practically inseparable, and I met Four when I when to her house for the first time. We'd all become really good friends, until my freshmen year of high school, and Four was a junior. I started getting feelings for him that I tried so hard to suppress, to stay the friends that we were. But he found out, told me no, then ended up dating my best friend at the time, Lauren.

Dramatic, I know.

Now, Christina and I are best friends, I'd kill Lauren if I really had the chance, and I avoid Four to the best of my ability.

We'd continued to walk in silence until we met with the highway again. As we climbed to the top, that overpassed the city, I saw the steadily crumbling city that we once knew as Dallas. That is no longer what it is; this is Hell. When we got to the top, we overlooked the city, we watched the infestation grow, claw against the fence, chained in against their will as if they had one. "This is outrageous…" I whisper, I stand there in awe as I watch the world before me disintegrate to ashes, where nothing will be left. _Nothing!_

I look over to the people beside me, tearing my eyes away from these preposterous conditions, to see them watching over the way I did moments ago. '_I cannot stand here and wait_' I tell myself, _'we must go.' _Without waiting any longer, I descend from the long highway, continuing onto the sizzling roads. I spot the sign that says 'Fort Worth 32 miles', and I follow it. It'll take me home.

Due to the cage of crawlers that lies inside of the city, we had to take the long way around. After I'd left them, and continued walking, when they finally caught up to me and agreed that we'd walk through the night, only stopping to eat, and I happily obliged.

We'd been walking for awhile now, finally stepped foot back into the woods about an hour ago, and since then the sun has steadily lowered itself to the horizon, taking away our daylight. When the sun finally disappears, leaving us to walk in the dark, Caleb finally speaks up, breaking the silence. "I think it's about time we stop, and get something to eat," he says.

Walking not much longer, we find a circle of trees that would easily encase us. All setting down our bags, we pull out the food we have left, which would barely last us our trip there. I grab the two cans that are left in my bag, before pulling out the knife that lies on my hip, puncturing the top of the can three times, then prying it open. I look around me to see the others doing the same.

Sitting around the fire, they all tell jokes and laugh happily, as if nothing in the world is wrong. I could never live like that, not anymore, I always have to be quiet, I always have to listen, and I always have to be awake even when I'm sleeping. "Hey Tris!" I hear my brother; I only look towards him to acknowledge my attention. I do not waste my breathe on words wasted on casualties that will surmount to nothing. "Remember when we went hunting with Dad, Zeke and John a few years back, and we'd killed something, I don't remember what it was, but you were practically dissecting the thing," he laughs.

I smile at the memory, as the others looks at him confusedly, so he continues "Ya, she'd skin the thing, and point out all its different organs and what they did and everything, even pointed out that it's heart had exploded on impact" he says, adding a chuckle to the end, "from that day on, I always named her my little doctor."

I don't speak a word, as they all go back to their regular conversation. I wonder what the relevance of that story was, probably just for entertainment, just to remember what it was like at a time before this. "Hey, I'm going for a walk" Caleb says, standing up before arming himself with several knives and guns. No one pays much attention to him really, "Four? Come on", he says, before taking off again.

I can't lie, and say that my heartaches watching him leave again, knowing that I just got him back. And I also can't lie, and say that I'm not the least bit curios why he'd ask Four to go with him. Deciding that my curiosity is stronger than my fright I look around me; no one is paying attention to me. I take that chance to ease away quietly towards the direction that the others went.

As the light of the fire slowly fades, footsteps and voices become clearer, and I realize I'm becoming closer to them. What once were loud footsteps of escape from the people who'd stop me, are now quiet as I try to read what Caleb and Four are saying. And it is that moment, which I notice I forgot any kind of weapon, including the knife that was once eternally attached to my hip.

"I don't understand, where are you going? Why do you have to do this?" a voice asks, that I notice to belong to Four.

"I just have to, okay? Please don't make me regret trusting you with this, when I could've someone else" and that would be Caleb. Where is he going?

"Fine… where are you going?"

"I can't tell you that… but I need you to do me a favor"

"Why are you telling me this if you can't tell me the entire thing!" Four bursts.

"I just can't, I would've assumed that you of all people would understand this… now, are you in, or not?" It's silent for a few moments before they continue

"Alright, I'm in, what do you need?"

"For one, I need you to keep this from Beatrice-"

"Tris? Why?" Four questions

"Just do it, it's to protect her more than to hurt her…" Caleb replies. I hear the footsteps behind me, the growling behind me, but I'm too enveloped in the conversation, and the bothersome is too far away for me to care. "And on the same note, protect her Four, if you want to repay me in any way, that is what you will do… You will keep her safe even if it means yours, or another's life… she will be important later" Caleb speaks, and right as he finishes, as if on cue, a long, loud whistle plays out. "I have to go now… Remember, do not tell anyone, as far as you know I'm long gone dead" Caleb says, before what sounds like pulling something out of his pocket. The tears well up in my eyes; he's gone again, and he didn't even tell me goodbye, he didn't care enough to tell me goodbye.

"When you get to Fort Worth, get Zeke alone and give this to him, he'll know what it means…" He finishes.

"Okay" Four says, the breath sounds as if taken from him, like it's hard for him to breathe; how it'd be for me if I tried to talk, impossible. "This is going to break her, you know that right?" I assume Caleb only nods, because he doesn't respond. A second whistle sounds, and I hear the panic in the last sentence that I will ever hear in his voice again.

"I love her Four, tell her that for me, I couldn't bear to… but some things are just… just more important than love… I'll see you later" and with that, he's gone, the pitter patter of his foot steps against the leaves as he runs leaves tears streaming down my face at the same pace, fast and unstoppable.

The growling that I'd once heard a distance away now has its grungy arms around the tree that I had been leaning on, reaching for me. It wraps its arms around my neck, allowing me to release a strangled scream, but too weak to do anything about. At the point where its claws almost got me, its mouth almost reaching my neck, it just falls.

He saved me again. As I face him, his eyes are wide, "what are you out here for?" he asks, startlingly. '_He's really asking 'how much did you hear?'' _ I tell myself.

I answer simply, "You guys were gone for awhile, got worried… I've only been out here a minute or two, but I forgot any weapons… just go, I'll be back in a minute"

He eyes me suspiciously for a moment, but luckily doesn't decide to argue. The moment he's gone I crash to the ground in a pile of skin and bones as the tears flood my face again. He's gone, and what he had to do was more important than love, and he's gone, and he didn't even say goodbye.

And he's gone.


	5. Chapter 5

Last of Us- Ch. 5

Running, even though I'm sure that I'm running faster than I ever have before, I feel like I can't go any faster than a slow walk. I pant, breathing, attempting to catch my breath. I've been running for hours, round and around dark halls that all look the same. I try to stop, but my legs won't allow me, as if I'm searching for something, but I don't know what. Step after step, dark hallway after hallway, only lit by the dim lamps hanging from the invisible ceiling.

Invisible ceiling. How is it that these lamps are hanging from what would be an invisible ceiling? I ponder on the question, all the while still running. This isn't real I tell myself. _This isn't real, This isn't real,_ I push on. As my mind accepts the situation, I come to a wall. The first wall I've seen in front of me for miles possibly, I turn my head, looking towards the direction in which I just came from; a wall takes its place, which seemingly came from no where. As I turn the see the walls surrounding me, encasing me, I inhale the first sharp breath I've been able to take, and I quickly regret as my lungs burn with exhaustion. As I'm turning, my eyes moving quickly around the intimidating box around me, as if tearing it, ferociously, into shreds.

Blinking once, and my surroundings change, the box changes into glass, or what looks like glass. _What is this?_ Again taking in my surroundings, I hear noise, the first noise I've heard since the pounding of my feet against the metal. I turn, trying to locate where the noise is coming from. _It's water._ Indeed, it is water, filling up my enclosed box, which now has a ceiling, allowing me with no escape. The water is quickly filling, now up to my knees. I try to stop it, try to save myself because right now there is no one else but me. _Tris,_ I hear, _Tris,_ I hear again, distracting me from my current predicament. Attempting to focus, the voice continues, calling me, dragging my attention away. Finally, I give up trying to save myself from my own box, from my own fears I look up. The water is up to my waist now, and furiously pursuing me; taking my body into its safety of imminent death.

I try finding the location of the voice, who'd torn me from my scarce life. There's no going back. As I turn my back to the source of the water as it steadily rises on me, then turn back. _I'd prefer the everlasting hallways to this._ When I turn back towards the source, the water right below my chest, I see the hallways again, and lamps hanging from the nonexistent ceiling. And in front of the background, is Caleb, tears streaming down his face as they did on mine the night before. He's there, I see his face, calling my name, and at his feet I see fire, his body turning to ashes as they climb up. I stand there; relish the fact that I'd seen the slowly melting face, which I never thought I'd see again. As the flames climb up his body, like a burning phoenix, as he's turning completely into ash that'll soon be piled upon the floor, still hollering my name. I pound my hands against the box, trying to get out and save him, save my brother that is a phoenix himself. To no prevail. _I'm drowning, _I tell myself, but that no longer bothers me; I let him die.

I stare in awe as the flames steadily climb up his body as the water climbs mine, consuming his entire torso and chest. He's still calling my name, and I try to tell him to stop, it's only hurting me worse; worse than him leaving me without a single goodbye. The flames finally consume him, as his final words slip out in a scream, "I'm sorry", he says. His body then collapses in a heap of ashes atop the dusty concrete floor, before whisking away completely.

As the tears flood my face, the water eventually fills my ultimate fish tank with no escape. The realization finally succumbs me; '_you're drowning_', I tell myself as the water finally reaches my mouth, climbing over my nose, and reaching the top of my head. I try to swim, and catch my breath through inches between the tank and the water, before that fills too. I gasp in the air before going back under. I stare out the tank, where my brothers' ashes once were then resting on the bottom of the tank; _you're running out of air_; I wrap my arms around my legs, and resist the urge to do anything. _You're helpless!_

I sit there for another moment or two, thinking of ways to make this as painless as possible and come up with a solution; make it quick. I close my eyes, blocking off the tears that I believe are still running down my face, before inhaling that one huge breath it takes to end everything. As I take that breath, my lungs fill with water and it burns, but it only lasts for a moment, then I'm gone. Just as Caleb was, and I wonder, was it as painful for him?

I my eyes fly open as I drag in a deep ragged breathe. I take in my surroundings to see everyone awake, and staring at me with concern deep in their eyes. I finally remind myself of the events of the previous nights, finding Caleb, going through the city, Caleb leaving.

When I'd finally returned to the group last night, maybe an hour later, they'd all known of Caleb's disappearing act. For the excuse that Four gave them, I'm not sure of, but I don't really care; I know the truth. And since then, I've gotten the sympathetic glances from everyone, the sympathy that I don't want because I don't even feel bad for myself, but if I don't keep the clueless act up, they'll assume something's up.

The sun is finally rising, signifying my first full night of sleep in almost a week. "We've gotta get moving…" I say, then standing and gathering my stuff.

"Tris… don't you think you should just… I don't know…" she mutters, the sympathy dripping from her words. "Take a break… I mean, you've been nonstop the past week, eat, sleep, walk… we're lucky to get you to just stop… please" Christina begs. I immediately feel bad; I'd promised her we'd talk but haven't gotten to it, and she's right, I've been going non-stop since the beginning of this.

I wave for her to follow me before walking deep in the woods. We need to talk; I can't trust myself with the weight of it all anymore. Walking for another minute or two, I waited until the other voices were slowly the disappearing like the night before; the night Caleb left. When we finally stopped, Christina began to talk but I held my finger over my lips as if to silence her. "Four!" I yell out, "stop following us." I heard the crunch of the leaves as he left us be; I thought he'd be smarter than to blatantly follow us, he must've assumed that I needed to talk to him also after the previous night.

"How'd you know?" she asks, but I only shake my head, it'd still be a long story because once I tell her one thing, I'd tell her it all. "What's wrong with you Tris? What's been going on? You haven't been the same…" she says, as if she almost scared to talk to me. That once strong, powerful Christina that I knew is now gone, replaced with someone who's scared; I'm scared to, but not of my best friend. I think about it for a moment, and then came to the conclusion that she's worried I'd lash out on her with the heap of pent up anger built inside me.

Granted, I was never the most open the girl with the best past, but I was never as guarded as I am today. But no one ever thought that I'm like that because I don't want to get close to anyone, I don't- no, I _can't_- rely on anyone at a time like this; at a time where I takes one moment for everyone to be gone. "Listen Christina, I'm not trying to be like this on purpose" I begin quietly, softly, as if to relieve her quivering surface, "I just need time, okay?" I ask, and she nods. I begin to ponder on whether I should really tell her what I know or not, about Caleb. "This isn't going to make any sense, hell I can't even make sense of it myself, yet… but Caleb, isn't really dead…" I say, even quieter than my first sentence. Her lips form a perfect 'O' before she takes on a confused state.

"What're you talking about Tris? Four came back last night, told us that her heard Caleb scream and he just disappeared, he was gone… what else could've happened?" she asks me, looking around as if someone could be listening, but I know they aren't, as I've done the same thing a dozen times. "This isn't good for you Tris. It's false hope." She says firmly, not afraid of my reaction as she should be considering she's saying that I'm just imagining everything.

"No… it's not like that Christina" I spurt out, grasping at any reality I can, as a way to explain this situation to her that won't sound like I'm completely psychotic due to sleep deprivation or what not. "I heard Caleb and Four last night, he's not dead" I repeat, "he had to leave, I'm not sure where, he never said, but he told Four that he had to repay him for something, that Four had to take care of me… Look, I know this doesn't make any sense right now, but trust me, I know what I heard" I beg. I need someone to believe me, to believe in me.

She continues to eye me warily, reliably weighing on whether she should tell the others whether or not I've gone crazy. "Please Christina, I know I'm not imagining this! I need you of all people to believe me right now, you're the only one I can trust" I continue, and she nods.

"Alright, I believe you… only because the excuse that Four used didn't exactly sound right, and I can tell when he's lying…" she smiles, before point to the temple of her head, "sisters Intel" she laughs, as do I. This feels good; it feels good to laugh again, to talk like sisters with Christina like we used to be. I continue to debrief her on the reminisce of the conversation last night, the entire time watching her face as it perplexes.

"What do you think he owes Caleb? As far as I know they've maybe said ten words to each other before this all happened…" Christina asks, and her face once again contorts in confusion.

"I don't know, it's your brother," I tease with a smile. But not moments later she retorts, "your brother too!" and we both laugh at our childish nature, even during this situation. We sit there for a while, talking catching up. We'd walking a bit further away to find a fallen shirt that acted as a place for us to sit during our catching up.

"Tris?" she asks, breaking me out of my train of thought, and I nod towards her to show her my attention. "What do you think is out there?" she asks, and I ponder on the question, "I mean… what if we're all that's left?"

She's right; that's never a question I've thought of before; I've always raised my curiosity upon something else. "I'm not sure Chris…" I reply honestly, as honest that I can be to her begging eyes. One thing about Christina is that she's always been a sociable person, always talkative and almost afraid to be alone, so afraid that she'd do anything to have company, much unlike me. Much of my early years were spent in sports, so much that I was homeschooled until fifth grade. I'd never been dependent on anyone, never liked to be, but Christina taught me that within that social bond with people, sometimes you could create love amongst each other. I believe that is what Christina and I have built, love.

"No matter what, I will always be there with you. But this isn't the last of us"

**A/n- so, how was it? I hope everyone liked it! You finally got to learn a bit more into Tris' background, and got to see a bit into Tris' bond with Christina that I'm excited to create. But anyway, please review, 10 reviews til next chapter! Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

Last Of Us- Ch. 6

Christina and I talked for a while and when we finally finished, we'd joined back with the group. "What is that up there?" Tori asks, pointing to the building in the middle of the woods, left as a blur. I only shake my head, unsure, and walk faster. As we near it, it becomes clearer that it's a house; _someone lives here._

I near it, knocking on the door, I look behind me to see Four and Lauren in tail and I knock again. With no response, I shake the door handle to find it's unlocked; I twist and push the door, the moment I step foot inside a walker comes out from behind the door, gray and skinny. Surprisingly, I'm unprepared for this, with no weapons out and ready. The first thing that comes to mind and as a last resort I bring my foot, placing it sideways on what would be its gut, sending backwards to the floor. Before I can get my knife out to finish it, Four got to it, jamming his knife into the side of its skull and pulling out quickly.

Stupidly enough, he allows Lauren to come with us, supplying her with a knife; _she must not be as helpless as I'd assumed._ He signals for us to split up, and we do. I immediately find the kitchen for any food or water, and luckily I find some. Pulling the bag off of the opposite shoulder as my crossbow, and I unzip it. I find that it has steadily become empty, but I throw any canned goods that I find inside, we can always use it. As I stock my bag, I find that my mind slowly wanders back to the woman we'd seen. Or at least, what used to be a woman, as much as I don't like thinking about the people that the walkers used to be, I couldn't help it. I think about her life, what was she, did she have a job, kids, and family; _was she happy? _

Continuing my search, I find she must've had family, or at least relative by the looks of the Christmas cards magnetized to the fridge. Then I wonder if they know about her fate, that she's dead; I come to the conclusion that they don't know, and it's more than likely better that way, in comparison to the knowledge of my brothers supposed death. As I'm looking through the photos that lay atop the fridge, I see her old self, one who looked happy with a toddler and a fiancé or husband. She was young. The photo, in a trance of their happiness, captures me and before I know it, I'm being broken out by a scream. I quickly fold the evidence of the woman's life, and place it in my back pocket, cherishing it; _she mustn't have been immune. _I quickly get off the counter, running to the source of the scream to find Lauren on the ground, a walker over her, feasting on her flesh and blood. _Well, there's my answer to the curiosity of the woman having a family_, I tell myself.

"Hey!" I shout, pulling my crossbow around as the creature faces me. I fire, hitting it puncturing the cerebrum of its skull. I let the energy run through me, recovering my breath, I look up and find that Lauren is unconscious, _she'll turn soon._ Pulling the arrow out of the walkers' forehead and put it away before pulling out my knife. No matter how much I truly hate her, I feel awful doing this, and I feel as if I will always owe Four. I walk up to her body slowly, as if I will awaken her, and she'll kill me first, surprisingly allowing a tear to stream down my face, I tell myself it's for Four, not for Lauren. My vision blurry with tears, I slide the knife into the side of her skull as I've done many times before, pulling out quickly before wiping the excess blood onto my jeans as I hear _his _voice.

"What the _hell_ did you do?" he mutters through gritted teeth, and I'm sure I pale at the sound of his voice. The tone of his voice sends shivers through my body as I evidently shudder. "Four…" I begin but no words come out. I turn, and see his eyes cloudy with what could be tears as he looks over her now pale body, but his eyes now turned black with fury.

"Four," I attempt to begin again, my voice groggy, "you have to believe me, I was going through things and I heard her scream, I came in here as fast I could" I can now speak, relaying the events, "the walker, he- he… Four, she was already gone, I-" I say, but ignoring my protests and excuses. His hands curl into tight fists, his knuckles turning white and before what I know what happened I'm against the wall. _He punched me, _and is now in my face just staring at me viciously, as if he could kill me too, as if this was _my_ fault and for a moment I welcome it; _I don't want to be in this world anymore. _I remain holding my jaw, entranced by his glare, like a small child being scolded by their father and shrink down.

As he goes to yell at me again, Tori appears in the doorway, "Four!" she bursts, "you are _not_ your father!" I watch his face, but he looks unfazed by her words, to buried inside of his own mind of rage. I, on the other hand, push past his arms, finally allowing the tears to flow again as I disbanded them before to withhold my show of fear. But I leave the house, collecting my weapons and bags on the way, without looking back to see if he had followed me. A part of me wishes he'd stay with her.

A/n- so, I'm really sorry for this embarrassingly short chapter that is a little over a thousand words. I just felt like it was a good place to end it and with all of the stuff that's been going on like fixing the old chapters and midterms for the end of the semester, I haven't had much spare time. But next chapter will be better I hope, but anyway, let me know what you think… and REVIEW! Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

**IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE AT THE BOTTOM! PLEASE READ!**

Last of Us- Ch. 7

Minutes later Tobias comes out, bloodshot eyes and tear stained face that I can tell he's tried desperately to dry. As he locks the door to the now abandoned house behind him and continues to walk, I feel the guilt steadily climb it's way up my body, and this is yet another thing I owe him for, not keeping her safe as he's been told for me. I'm appalled for a moment at his actions and mine, before Tori puts her hands on my lower back, urging me forward. _And then there were five_…

We'd finally caught up to each other, walking in a group for a while, silently. After nearly an hour, I hear noises to the right of us, footsteps and voices, or growls. I immediately stop, causing Christina, who was behind me, to run into my back. They begin to question me, ask me what I'm doing but I hold my finger to my lips, silencing them as they listen with me. Hearing what I hear, we're still for a moment more, before taking small quiet steps to continue. I keep my eyes glued towards the direction in which I heard the footsteps, watching, and then a walker emerges from behind the tree line, then another one. Then more, and more; more than we could possibly handle without drawing noise and attention towards ourselves, so we run without having to say a word with each other.

As we run, we find ourselves at the end of the woods, and on the road where we are almost completely surrounded; _I honestly have no idea how we're going to get out, unless we run for hours. _But we do, we keep running on the edge of the road. After ten minutes or so, I find my throat burning, begging for water as my legs ache, but we're still surrounded. I hear what sounds like a truck behind us, which very soon becomes clear that that's what it is, the horn blaring as it tears through the pack.

Before I can process what is actually happening, it pulls up next to us as I'm frozen in shock in fear. Just barely stopping for us, everyone jumps in while it's practically still moving. I feel myself be thrown into the extremely high bed of the truck, and Four jumps in right after me, as I come to the conclusion that he's the one who threw me in. We lie there in the bed of the large truck panting, gasping for breath despite our burning lungs.

When we all finally recovery slowly sitting up, and becoming aware of our surroundings, knowing we never cared before now considering we knew we were going to die anyway. My mind ponders to the thought, where are we and who saved us? Finally asking the large group of walkers, the truck pulls onto a dusty, dirt road driveway, an extremely large building lying ahead. As the truck pulls to a stop, I'm partially thankful for the salvation, and partially scared that these people aren't the saviors we think they are.

The two men sitting in the drivers and passengers seat get out, slamming the rusty metal doors shut. Four opens the tailgate to the bed of the truck and jumps out, followed by Christina, Tori who's carrying a now sleeping Adrian, then myself. The second I jump down I recognize him, a bit taller than Tori and Christina who I'm standing behind. I push through the group towards him. "Zeke!" I shout, but not too loudly, the sound of his name catching his attention causing him to look toward me. A small smile appears on his face, but that's all he'd ever give me, that's all he'd ever give anyone. I go up to him, wrapping my arms around his neck but standing on my toes to be able to reach.

His arms are wrapped around my waist tightly, almost afraid to let it go, "I thought I lost you Trissy" he whispers in my ear, using my old nickname from where we were younger. I shiver at his breath on my skin, but I shake my head "no, you never lost me" I whisper back, "I made it, I'm here," I say over and over again. We remain in each other's grasp until the man he's with clears his throat, releasing each other to look at everyone staring at us in shock.

"Hello, I'm Max and this is Zeke," the man says, then pointing towards Zeke. He's tall, but no taller than Four and despite his dark chocolate skin; you can see the even darker rings around his eyes. "Welcome to Dauntless. We provide a safe haven of sorts for those who can't help themselves in this world, or those in danger like yourselves" he says again, his deep voice booming without actually meaning to I'm sure.

After explaining what the place is and what they do, he leads us inside, touring us around the place; where people eat, sleep, and live for a possible eternity. He explains to us that everyone has a job here, whether it's joining the minimal amount of scientists they have here either trying to find a cure or as a doctor to cure the sick if an epidemic breaks out which could be catastrophic. Or you could also be patrolling the fences, which are possibly a mile high, where you'd shoot the walkers on the ground surrounding. There are many other jobs here, all of which you don't exactly get paid in money which isn't really a currency anymore considering the situation, but you get paid in hospitality and safety and security. A thing that most people will never be able to repay, they'll always be in a debt.

After explaining everything, he shows us to the dorms, Zeke remains following entail, also explaining the all teens will stay in the same dorm as they go through a training of sorts, so in order to leave the family undisturbed in the early and late hours, they keep the teens separately from the family. And the rest of the family gets a room, where any young children like Adrian will stay. He shows Tori and Adrian to a room, where they'll be staying and we bid them goodbye as I plant a sweet kiss over Adrian's cheek.

"These are the dorms" Max says, showing us the extremely large rooms. By the amount of these types of rooms, along with the bland looking hallways and similar rooms, I've come to the conclusion that this once used to be either a military base or a large hotel. "You will be staying here for a few weeks, just until we teach you the basics of what you need to know here in Dauntless to survive, then you will be on your way back with your families" he continues, showing us the few empty beds left in the mixed gender room.

As we walk around, I hear Christina shout, almost a squeal. I look towards her direction to see him, _Will_. "Will!" she yells out, running up and practically throwing herself on him, causing him to collapse back onto what would be his bed. I feel bad for a moment that I hadn't even given him a second since the chaos in Arkansas, since we all got split up. I can't suppress the tiny smile that crawls its way on my face as I watch their reunion; she really liked him, but it seemed as if she tried to convince herself that he was dead. "What happened?" I ask almost blandly, my throat raw and scratchy because of its dryness, but I try my best to at least look happy because I am.

He looks up to me, eyes widening for a second before returning to normal, _he didn't expect me to be alive either_. "We got split up in Arkansas as you know. I survived about two days on my own before I ran out of supplies, I was running from _them,_ almost dead, and Dauntless found me. It was a miracle" he says, and the gears begin turning in my head. _Yea, they seem to save people right as they're about to die, don't they_, I tell myself. I quickly push the thought from my mind as I attempt to remain at Will's discovering, but he speaks again. "I must say Tris" he begins, "I'm surprised you're still alive. I could've sworn you would've been dead in a day after the incident due to your recent… _recklessness_" he says, as if searching for a word to call me, like that isn't enough. Christina's eyes widen at his candor, but I only bow. "At your service…" I joke, a smile now widening on my face as it does everyone else's.

I give Christina her space on the other side of the empty room with Will, and Four had went off somewhere on his own, probably to hate me, leaving Zeke and I here in an awkward, tense, silence. "Why've you barely talked to me Zeke?" I ask, as blunt as I can be without being rude or mean. But it's true, he's said the few words to me when we first found each other, and since then he's found every excuse not to be next to me, talk to me, or even breathe the same air as me.

"You left Tris, you just up and left… you can't expect me to not be mad, and you can't possibly expect things to go back the way they were" he says, now standing up off the bed he was once sitting on across from me, as we were just staring at each other, daring the other to talk first. "You can't really be mad at me for that, I had no control-" I begin, but he interrupts me.

"Really?!" he bursts, now evidently angry as I shrink down, "I can't be mad at you? You knew Tris! You knew you were leaving and it was _your_ choice not to tell me… you could've at least warned me!" Zeke yells, his cheeks red with a mix of anger and exhaustion. I take my seat back on the thin mattress, my elbows on my knees and my head down and what would look like shame, probably because it is. _He's right_, my mind yells at me, _you could've told him and you didn't, all because you were scared!_

"I-" I try to speak, but nothing comes out, so I'm left there speechless, tears swimming around my eyes as I try to come up with an excuse for him to forgive me. "Whatever" he says, "I'm done Tris" then turns on his heel, and leaves, leaving me drowning in my own tears and sympathy.

A/n- Hey, I'm sorry for another boring, short chapter, but I'm just setting up for something big I promise, so it'll start getting interesting soon, I promise! As of right now, this is mostly filler to build up personality within the characters as well as a back story and killing off the characters that I need to, so things are clearer later and I don't have to worry about writing for ten different characters rather than 2 or 3 main one, and I can strictly write the plot and make a good story! I do have some exciting news though, **ONE MONTH FROM NOW, ON FEBRUARY 23RD , I WILL BE RELEASING MY NEW STORY 'SAINT AND THE SINFUL'! SO I HAVE A DEAL! EVERYONE AND ANYONE WHO REVIEWS ON THIS STORY AND/OR 'EFFULGENT', WITH A PROPER FANFICTION ACCOUNT, WILL GET AN EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEAK AT MY NEW STORY! **The reason I ask for a proper fanfiction account is so I can PM it, because it is much easier that giving out an email and what now.But anyway, thanks for all the great review and comment and likes and follows and what now! It really means a lot! So I want to see if I can get maybe get ten reviews for this chapter! Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

**Important authors note at the end!**

Last of Us- Chapter 8

In awe and confusion for nearly an hour, I lie there, wondering what I ever did that was so wrong to him. Now this morning, my stomach groaning from the lack of food due to skipping dinner last night, which was indicated to be at around six from the empty dorm room. Even with as much dread that fulfills me as i drag my back away from the brick-feeling bed, I'm still eager to eat the first proper meal I've had in days. Luckily, when we first arrived in Dauntless, they provided us with a few sets of clothes each, and warm showers, which would be the first I've taken in weeks despite all of the washing up with the stale sink water that we've found and small streams.

Pulling myself out of the bed, and crouch down, reaching under the bed for the neatly folded clothes that lie on the dusty, concrete floor. I pull out the nearly out black clothing, before properly standing. I pace around the hallways from probably almost ten minutes before finally finding a women's washroom. Walking in, I'm thankful to find a shower, only covered by a thin plastic curtain. I shut the bathroom door behind me before walking into the stall. First, intimated by the thin covering as I know anyone can walk in at any moment, but I decide to brush that off and take a shower.

My mind wanders to other places as I peel my clothes off my body, and turn on the water, letting the warm water massage the muscles along my arms and shoulders. How could he possibly be angry with me for something that happened nearly three years ago, of which I had no control over. I didn't ask to leave, if anything I wanted to stay because at that moment I had everything, and we, of course, didn't stay. But I never got over him, and I still haven't.

Before I know it, I'm done, my hair dripping wet, and my body nearly aches with the amount of scrubbing that I put it through. I wrap a towel around myself, covering every necessity, before stepping through the curtain for a moment. I look at myself in the mirror again, realizing how long it's been. My eyes, unlike a few weeks ago, no droop and are all shades of dark around them, tired, where before my eyes were bright with color, and happiness even if that wasn't what I was feeling. My shoulders are no longer up, and straight, but they're now hunched, also tired looking, and no longer prideful.

I cringe away from the sight of myself, how thin and frail looking I am, but I shouldn't care about that anymore. I'm not sure why I cared in the first place. Why _do_ looks really matter to anyone? It's only materialistic; who has what, and I suddenly despise the world we lived in before this. Turning back to the curtain_, _I rush back into the shower stall as I hear the door to the washroom squeal open. "Tris?" I hear Tori's voice cut through the silence, "come on, you need to eat something… you weren't at dinner last night" she says, and I begin to change my mind about going to the dining hall this morning, starving myself until dinner if I even go then. "Adrian is waiting for you," and like that, I'm rushing to get dressed. _Of course she knows my weakness_. Quickly putting on the black tank top, black wind-breaker jacket, and black leggings, I immediately wonder how I'm supposed to stay warm in this during the fast-approaching winter months, but I ignore the thought. Putting my hair into a careless bun, and slipping on the now extremely worn boots that I've had on. I pick up my retired clothing before leaving the slippery wet floor and plastic curtain behind.

Quickly, I go back to the dorms, shoving my old clothes where my new ones once were. Then wandering for about as long as I took to find the washrooms, as I've already forgotten my way around. I allow the roar of the crowd of people talking, laughing, and smiling, guide my way to the dining hall, considering I'm already late to begin with. Despite the tour yesterday, of which I didn't pay attention at all, the sight of the extremely large room, crowded with all the people I'd heard once before now overwhelms me. _People, other people, besides myself, I can't owe them, but I have to interact with them_. I want nothing more than to have absolutely nothing to do with any of these people, but if this is what it takes to keep my now diminished family safe, then I have no choice.

The thought of my family now crawls its way back into my mind as I've tried so desperately to push it out, to keep it away from me because that's the only way to keep myself sane. The despair creeps in, the yearning for my mother and father, though my father only took himself away from us out of a selfish fear than I cannot, _should not_, forgive, but I do. And my mother, my sweet mother, who never could've done anything wrong to the world, hadn't been immune, and was already turning as you could see her life leave through her now blank eyes. Then my brother, Caleb, who'd apparently felt as if living in this world, living with his two sisters of which he'd promised to keep safe, was unbearable, and that things were much more important than love. More important than the love I though he had for Adrian and me at a time like this. Then Lauren, though she wasn't my family nor would I ever want her to be- wanted her to be, I feel guilty for killing her, although I knew her fate would end as Uriah's would; an immune turned. I've always tried convincing myself that she was already dead, that she would've turned, that I didn't kill her. But part of me knows that's wrong; part of me was hoping she was already dead, and I don't regret that.

While I had been drowning in my thoughts, I absentmindedly took the only remaining seat at the table where Tori, Adrian, Four, Christina, Will and Zeke are also sitting. I feel tense to say the least, knowing that at least two of the people at this table hate me, probably three. But I ignore it. Making my plate of a single piece of toast, a spoonful of eggs and a piece of bacon with a small cup of orange. I feel as if this is too much, that if my child-like body intakes all of this, it'll only be coming out minutes later. Despite the thoughts, I take the first bite of my toast; a small bite, with a sip of orange juice. I've noticed that the moment I sat at the table, it became silent, any voices, talking or laughing, that'd once been going on completely disappeared.

I rush my breakfast a bit, but no longer than it takes for Adrian to eat. It's still been silent, everyone once staring at me for a moment, before returning to their breakfast in silence other than the ruckus in the dining hall. I stand from my seat, and walk the few footsteps to the garbage can to toss my plate, silverware, and cup. When I turned back around I noticed Four leaning over to Tori, his mouth moving but no words coming out that I could hear, and everyone else leaning in closely to hear, while they all evidently stare at me. I tear my gaze away from them before walking over to the opposite side of the table to Adrian, I lean down, whispering in her ear, "want to go for a walk chipmunk?" I ask her. She turns around, staring at me wide-eyes, probably astonishing that I'm actually talking to anyone, nonetheless asking to spend time with her. But I know I can't push her away, I can't leave her with no one when the rest of her family left. She quickly nods her head and gets up, going to the same garbage bin to throw her trash away before returning to me and grabs me hand. She looks up to me with pleading eyes, but I can't let everything go unsaid, so before I leave I lean down to the table where everyone else as already almost silently whispering. "You can go ahead and talk about me now" I say, and leave, without giving them the time of day to respond. _I don't want their responses._

I walk out of the dining hall, not fast, but not slow either, Adrian still clinging to my hand so I allow her a pace to keep up with me without running. We roam the halls silently for a while, only listening to the sound of our sliding feet against the gray concrete floors, which keeps us content for now. "Tris?" Adrian asks quietly, almost afraid sounding, which sends a pang of guilt through my chest, nearly bring tears to my eyes. I look at her, for her to see that she has my attention, not anger and I watch as her eyes brighten slightly at the sight of possibly having her sister back. "Is everything okay?" she asks, maturely. I don't want to lie to her, tell her we're all going to live and the world is going to return to the way it once was, because that'll never happen. Even if it does, she's not going to get her mother or father back, they can never be replaced, and she will always carry that with her. But I also don't want to tell her the truth; tell her that our world is falling apart and we know and no one is going to save it, there is no way we can. That we are helpless. So I tell her the same thing I tell myself when I ask the same question. "I don't know."

She accepts the answer, at least for now, and I'm grateful that she doesn't ask any more questions. I don't want to answer any more questions. I suddenly remember a spot that I'd wandered past while searching for the washroom, and decide to go back to the beautiful sight. We wander around for another while, as I search for that one breathtaking piece of sanity. As we turn another corner I spot it, at the end of the hallway. It's a big glass room, a scenery, and at one end of the glass room, you can see the city, the tall buildings and the highway, but I no longer find it fascinating considering I know what it contains. And on the other end of the glass room you find the forest, acres and acres of green woodland, that I wouldn't mind escaping to for eternity, never to be bothered again. To die there. Once we reach the abandoned room, Adrian finally releases my hand, wandering around the safe place, where she must feel just that, because I know I do surprisingly enough.

Ever since this chaos began, I never thought I'd feel safe again, I never thought I'd love again. Which is partially true, I won't, nor do I want to. But here- not in Dauntless, I could never feel safe in a place, around a group of people that I do not know, nor trust, not even in the old world that we once lived in,- here, in this glass room, full of peace and clarity, I feel safe. I feel blocked off from the world and all its creatures which is what is needed to actually feel safe. I cherish the moment for a long while in silence, now staring at the clear glass ceiling, of which I would've thought there wasn't one if I didn't know any better. But I stare at the clear blue sky, with only a cloud or two in sight which makes everything seem a bit more perfect.

I turn to see Adrian lying on the cold, hard floor of the encasement and I decide to lie with her. "Tris?" she asks again, and I decide to answer her this time. "Yea Adrian?" I respond, looking into her crystal clear blue eyes that I notice are more beautiful than the sky I once thought of as my sanity. "Are we going to be okay?" she asks again, and though I thought I'd feel anger at another question, I don't. These are the same questions I ask myself, over and over again, and rake through my mind for logical answers that I'd hope for, scraping the ones that I'd pray never happen even though I've thought them. But I can't leave answering these things up to an eight year old who probably thinks this is all just a dream, which is what I'm sure many of us wished it as. I turn myself over to look at her, her questioning eyes and scrunched up features that only jams the knife further into my heart. _I can't lie to her_.

"Yes." I say quietly, almost a whisper, but she listens closely. "We may not be ok in a year from now, or in a month, or tomorrow, but right now. We _are_ okay." Her face relaxes, but I can see the gears turning inside of her head, decoding the words that I say because I've never been exactly easy to figure out. She nods, and opens her mouth as if to begin to say something, but she is disrupted.

"Did you ladies get lost?" the voice peers through, loud and rough. I quickly stand up, brushing off the now nonexistent dirt before reaching my hand down to Adrian, which she places her hand in mine gracefully. Her eyes still lit by the time spent with me, as I'm sure mine are too. We both look to the door, where I find Max standing there, arms crossed, leaning against the glass walls, and I immediately cringe at the thought of him ruining our time together. "You know Beatrice, that you have training right about…" he looks down to his watch, as if checking the time but I know that's fake, "about now, so you best get going… and you, Adrian, have class." He says, a small smirk on his face. I look down to Adrian, to find her looking back up at me, confused. "Come one ladies, I'll take you to class Adrian, and I suggest you get to training as soon as possible Tris." Max reaches his hand out to Adrian, and she takes it hesitantly, and they walk off, but not before Adrian looks back at me with pleading eyes. _I don't trust Max, I don't trust Dauntless, I don't trust any of these people; and I will get out of here as soon as humanly possible._

I leave the beautiful glass room, promising myself to return there once more before I leave Dauntless. The only thing that I find absolutely odd about that room, was that there were no chairs, there were no tables, not even a light; why would they have a room, or even an observatory, without a single chair. Even with coming to the conclusion that this was once a military base, and more than likely still is, teaching to fight, and survive, a lot of things here don't make sense. I brush the thought of and walk to what Max showed me to yesterday, as the training room. Though I'm late, I don't rush, or walk quickly, much less run, I take my team, scanning everything as I walk by.

Minutes later, I make it to the training, listening to the noises coming from it as I walk in; what sounds like fists against punching bags. Walking through the double doors, to find exactly what I heard, a large group, probably almost thirty teenagers, punching the orange, odd shaped bags that are now swinging. I go over to them, and take an empty one, punching it. I hear the sliding of lazy footsteps behind, though mine do the same, and someone places their hand on my shoulder. I turn, and go to swing my fist, which would've caught them on their jaw, but the person caught my hand before it got that far. I look up to see a man, tattoos down the side of his neck, and piercings on nearly every inch of his face, with slick, greasy hair. He wouldn't look that bad if he didn't have the piercings everywhere and actually took the shower, because right now I'm praying that the delightful scent I smell, isn't coming from him. As far as his build, he looks a bit like Four, he's around Four's height, and though they're obviously both muscular, this man is a bit bulkier, where Four's looks strong, but normal.

He smiles a toothy grin at me, which isn't nearly as friendly as a smile should, which puts him in the same place as everyone else in this godforsaken place. _Without my trust._ "I'm Eric," he says, holding his hand out to me, but the smile remaining on his face. I cringe at his bloody hand, the blood acting as paste to cake on dirt. I turn away from his hand, and back to the punching bag, throwing only a single punch to it before Eric places his grungy hand back onto my shoulder, roughly this time. He tries turning me around, my I throw my knee into his stomach, and he bends over at the waist, gagging as if he's going to vomit this morning's breakfast. But I don't care, I put my knee up into his stomach again and again, and I don't stop until someone pulls me away. But I try to tear away from the arms and continue. _I need a punching dummy_. "Tris!" Eric's savior yells at me, and I look back to see Zeke, looking at me concerned. _I'm so tired of people looking at me, concerned, or worriedly._ I finally give up, going slack into Zeke's arms. He leans his head down to my ear, and I feel his warm breath against my neck, "come one" he whispers, "we need to talk." I nod, and he releases me, probably assuming that I'd given up. I look back over to Eric, to find him still hunched over, coughing up crimson red blood. I almost grin at the sight, because I don't even know him, and I already want to make him suffer.

Before turning, and leaving the training, I walk back to Eric. I lean down to his crouched level and whisper, menacingly, "so help me god, you _ever_ touch me again, I will put the knife in my boot to good use you son of a bitch" I sneer. And finally bring my knee up once more, to the side of his head. Turning my back to a now 'sleeping' Eric, and I see Zeke looking at me, tempted to come pull me off of Eric again if I didn't stop. But we both walk out of the room, ready to talk about whatever he wants to, and I feel the anticipation crawling up my spine.

A/n- So, am I mean for that? I hope not, I don't think I've really left you guys with any kind of cliffhanger in this story, so this'll be one of the first. Now, I have most of this story planned out, and I'm really excited for it, but ya'll are going to hate me for the ending. But oh well. So anyway, I'm going to do this for one more update, **I have a new story premiering February 23****rd****, so anyway who reviews to this to 'Effulgent' will get a sneak peak to it!** This will be the last update that I do this, but there will be more until then! But please favorite, and review and all that fun stuff because trust me, the story is just getting started.


	9. Chapter 9

Last of Us- Ch. 9

He drug me into the hall by my forearm, pulling me like a small child who'd just thrown a tantrum in the middle of a store. We get to the empty hallway, and just stand there for a moment, staring at each other, daring the other to speak first even though he's the one who wanted to talk to me. Before any words are spoken, disturbing the stare down, he wraps his arms around me, tightly. I try to resist for a while, but I fail and wrap my arms around him too. His face buried in my hair, breathing heavy, but I ignore it, I can't feel bad for him, and I don't. "I was wrong," he whispers, now pulling away from the embrace. I look into his eyes to see tears swimming around like they're lost at sea, threatening to fall onto new territory. "I'm so sorry, Tris. I was wrong" he says again, louder this time. My head tilts subtly to the side, questioning what he ever did that was so wrong, why he is apologizing to me. "I shouldn't have blamed you for what happened. All these years, I've been telling myself that the hurt I went through was your fault; that you did that to me because that was the only way I could hate you, to forget about you" he says, his cheeks now brightening. He's embarrassed by his actions, I can tell, but I don't blame him. I'd do the same thing, or worse.

"Its fine-" I begin, but he interrupts me. "No, it's not. I convinced myself of those things when I thought- I knew, that I'd never see you again, that I'd never have to patch that relationship up. But you're here now, and I am completely, and utterly speechless, because all I want is to get it all back again." He says, a normal voice this time, and with a blink of an eye the tears disappear. I'm astonished by his words because they're true. I too, never cared to patch our relationship because it was already gone, and I assumed that I'd just move on, and never see him again.

"Yes, it is okay, because I did the same thing. The same damn thing. I tried to forget about you even if I knew that it was impossible, and I tried to move on, and I thought I did." I reply, then looking down at my feet, "I thought I did" I mutter, talking about Four. I look back up, to see him looking at me intensely, the gears turning. Next thing I know is that he presses his lips to mine, softly, as if testing the waters. We kiss only for a few seconds before he pulls away again. I can't say that I didn't feel anything during it, but I'd never admit that. He goes to reach for my hand, but I pull away. _I don't want this_. His eyes go wide, and the tears return; the guilt cuts me, but it's not just that I _don't_ want this, I _can't_ have this.

After I'd pulled away, I allowed my eyes to wander, landing anywhere but on Zeke, so they settle behind him. And behind him, I see Four standing there, his arms hanging by his sides with an expressionless face. He finds me staring at him, not even attempting to look away, and he immediately his features turn into anger as he storming back into the training room. "Zeke, please don't…" I whisper, the reality of what happened coming back to me. "It's not that I don't want this," I tell him, relaying what I told myself. "I can't have this, because if I love you, you'll leave. At a time like this, I _can't _love anyone. Zeke, my mother and father are gone! They died! And Caleb, he- he just left me without a word. I can't lose anyone else that I love, please" I whisper, and my eyes, I'm sure, as pleading as my voice. "If this is going to happen," I say, meaning him and me, "let it happen. But don't try to fix something, that we're not even sure is going to work anymore."

We both stand there in a still silence, as I anticipate another outburst. Standing there for minutes in silence, thankfully no one else has bothered to come check on us. He nods a bit, probably to himself, then envelopes me in another hug. I'm taken aback for a moment before wrapping my arms around him again. To say that I surprised is an understatement, but happy nonetheless. This embrace was a lot shorter than the last, but it made me feel a lot better than the worry of before. He pulls away, a smile on his face and I wish to know what made him so happy at that moment. "Come on" he says, "I have to show you something."

He pulls me around the Dauntless compound, as if searching for something. We continue this fast walk until we reach a dark secluded hallway, then we slow down. Looking down the hall, there are three blurred glass doors, all with names. I recognize two of the three as Eric Courtney, assuming that it belongs to the Eric that I just nearly killed. And Max Phifer, the one that I don't trust. Zeke and I now walk silently, instead of listening to our pounding feet on the concrete. He leaves me behind at the beginning of the hallway, and creeps to the Max's door. Testing the handle to see if it is unlocked, and finds that it is. He twists it slowly, then sliding open the creaking door. He walks around the room, on the balls of his feet, to a board with a bunch of hooks on it, and keys hanging down. Before I know it, Max is walking past me to his door to find it open. I, luckily, am shoved into a tiny doorway that allows me to be invisible to Max's eye. I be sure to stay silent and I watch the event in front of me. "Ah, Mr. Pedrad… What're you doing here? That paperwork from intelligence isn't due until tomorrow?" Max asks, and I begin to wonder what he's talking about. Paperwork, from intelligence? What do they know?

"Uh, yes sir" Zeke says stuttering, but through the tiny doorway, I see him slide something into his back pocket, and slowly shuffling to the door. "I had a question, but I seem to have figured it out on my own. Sorry about that sir." He says, recovering, and making up a quick lie. "I'll be seeing you" Zeke finishes, before leaving the room, slamming the door behind him without a moment for Max to reply. Reaching out to grab my hand again, before we both start running, full out before Max can open the door to find me there also. After we sure of our escape, though we keep running, we both laugh. The first time I've actually laughed in days, possibly weeks, and it feels good. Something I want to feel more often, though doubtful. We kept running, and laughing until we made it to the dining hall, where we finally stopped, hunched over with our hands on our knees, breathing heavily, but still laughing because I don't think we can stop. After finally catching our breath, I look around us to see everyone in the large room staring at us like we're a bunch of lunatics, including the group of teenagers that I once saw in the training room, including Four and Christina.

Ignoring the disturbed looks from everyone, we get lunch, surprisingly enough sitting away from the rest of the teenagers. We sit alone, just talking, and laughing, reminiscing in a time that was much better than this, but at this moment we're making the best of it. We quickly eat lunch, because he told me there was still much more to see, and I honestly can't hide my excitement and anticipation. As we eat, I feel daggers being stared into the side of my head, as everyone around us watches, but it's not silent at least. Both getting up to throw away our trash, I quickly scan the room to find Four talking, but staring at us- me, with anger and possibly jealousy in his eyes. But I don't care. As if trying to make matters worse, though I know he's not, Zeke grabs my hand, and I walk with him to wherever he leads me. Amazingly enough, there's actually an unguarded, and he leads me outside. "Ready for some fun?" he asks, and I only look up to him and smile. He finished pulling me the rest of the way, to find a large garage, full of vehicles. ATV's, trucks, and SUV's scattered around the room. And I stand there, staring in awe, I haven't seen a working vehicle in what feels like forever. Zeke finally drops my hand, and somewhat miss the warmth. He walks over to a truck and I decide to follow him as he gets in, and I get into the passenger's seat. He starts it up silently, and drives. We pull up to a closed gate which he pushes a button, causing the gate to open. Driving through and the gate closes quickly behind us. "I found this path a few weeks back, and I've come up here every so often, whenever I get a spare moment" he says, focusing on driving on the path that wraps around a mountain. I only nod, unsure of what to say. Though we've only been out of the woods for barely a day, I find this view beautiful. It's so quiet, and clarifying, and peaceful.

Minutes later, and we've finally make it to the top of the mountain, which is all clear except for the tree line where we emerged from. He parks the bulky, black truck and turns the keys, pulling them out of the ignition. Opening the door to his side before looking at me, a small smile on his face. "Ready?" He asks, and I nod, also smiling. I open my door also, and get out. The wind up on the mountain is much stronger than it is at the Dauntless, sending a shiver down my spine, and I absentmindedly cling to my jacket tighter. Zeke must've seen me, and shrugged his jacket off, wrapping it around my shoulders. I begin to protest, but he holds his hand out to me. "Don't worry about it Tris" he says, smiling wider to me, and I do to. _This feels so surreal, too good to be true_. He wraps his arm around my torso, rubbing my side a bit, which sends a different kind of shiver through me. He turns to me, smiling, and brings his arm back around to grab my hand. "Remember, when we were little…" grabbing my hand, he lifts it over my head, spinning me around. "And we used to dance at my dad's farm, we used to stay out there for hours, just dancing… That was so fun" he says, his eyes distant but I can tell he's thinking about that moment as I am too. A smile on his face, his eyes return to mine as he spins me again. "And we used to do this," he says, before tilting me back slightly, and we both laugh.

"Yea," I say, a smile on my face, "I remember… What happened to those times? What happened to us?" I ask, now thinking about all that has happened recently. We both smile, his face lite brightly as we stand there, swaying to a nonexistent music. As we finally get tired, we retire to just sitting at the edge of the cliff, talking, or just sitting there, my head leaning against his arm as the sun goes down. "Tris, I'm not going to force this" Zeke says, breaking the silence as I turn to look at him questioningly. "But I'm not going to stop trying either. I want you, Tris, but I understand where you're coming from. And I can't lose anyone either" he says, so quietly that I struggle to hear what he's saying, but I see the tears once again return to his eyes. I shake my head, agreeing with him silently, unsure what else to say, so I say nothing. After another few minutes, he speaks again, lightly this time. "We should get back, it's going to get dark soon" he says, standing, then reaching has hand out to me.

I gladly take, standing, and brushing my pants off before we go back to the truck. We both get into, putting on seatbelt before he starts it up. Since he had the talk on the hill he's been quiet, and distant. I momentarily doze away from our tiring day, then falling into a deep sleep.

What feels like not even a minute, I'm being awoken by a loud crash and rolling. My head smashes against something hard, the window, and I feel the blood begin trickling down the side of my head. The conclusion finally comes to me that we'd gotten into an accident, we'd rolled down the hill with no way to get out. The truck finally stops toppling over, and I look over to Zeke. His eyes are closed, and I can only pray that he's still alive, the gash that reaches across his forehead dripping with blood from its collision against the dashboard. What look like little fireflies begin to cloud my vision, and begin to get dizzy as my chest becomes wet with blood. I begin to breathe heavily, nervously and I call his name, "Zeke? Zeke please… wake up" I continue to talk, but it sounds so distant, as my words become more faint. And then everything just goes…black.

A/n- CLIFFY! Lol, you'll find out what happened on Tuesday. Did Tris die? Did Zeke die? HOW WILL THE WORLD SURVIVE?! Lol. So anyway, can we try getting 10 reviews or so? That'd be great! So thank you for reading, school has been pretty hectic due to transferring over, but it'll settle down in a bit. I'll talk to you later, bye!

P.S. rereading both of the chapters the night before posting, I realize now that there is quite a bit of Zeke action in both of my stories, so yeah. Enjoy that! Lol


	10. Chapter 10

**IMPORTANT A/N!**

**A/n- Hey everyone! I'm posting this a day early because I'm going to be extremely busy tomorrow because it's my sisters' birthday and I have a lot of school work. And also, there will be no chapter for 'Effulgent' until Friday because I do not have those chapters prewritten and with my hand injury, I can barely type. Sorry for all the problems but I hope you enjoy!**

Last of Us- Chapter 10

I'd always wondered what it'd be like to be blind, to deaf. What kind of separation you'd feel from the society. How different you'd be. I get a sense of what that's like now, all I hear are distant voice, and the sound of beeping machines. I try to stay awake enough to listen in to the voices, but it doesn't work, and I'm drawn back under to my dark abyss.

This time when I awaken, I'm more aware. I can finally pry my eyes open, but barely and I only leave them open for a second before immediately closing them. The walls, which are painted a bright white, blinded me. I result to just listening. The steady beep of the machine beside me is constant, and easily tuned out, but the voices that I once tried listening to are now gone. I again, attempt to pry my eyes open, fighting against the light. After several minutes of opening and closing my eyes, then squinting, I finally get to keep them open, taking in the surroundings around me. I find the bright white walls again, that once blinded me, and now find that the baseboards of the walls are dingy, and yellow looking. I look around me, my eyes then finding the flickering yellow light above me, covered by a broken, plastic sheet. All in all, the place is run down, but they potentially saved my life, so I don't care. I recall what happened in the truck with Zeke. The mountain, the dance, the kiss. It all comes back at an alarming rate, and I sit back in the bed to try to settle down some. No sooner my eyes flutter shut, not to sleep but to think, I hear a shuffle to the left of me. I turn to see Tobias there, shuffling in the stiff looking chair as he awakens. He looks towards me after his eyes fully open, then widening when he finds me. Tobias practically flies out of his chair to my side, he wraps me in a hug and I groan a bit. He quickly backs off but doesn't leave my side, "Sorry" he mumbles, as an apology, when really there wasn't one needed. I only shrug leaning my head back once again. "How're you feeling?" he asks, and I shrug again. I don't know how I'm feeling, I haven't assessed that yet, and honestly, I'm quiet scared to. _You don't feel like anything wrong with you if you think as if it's true. _It's then, when I try to find something to focus on something other than pain, when I notice how extremely close his hand is to mine, his fingers strategically placed between mine, and his hand in my hair, combing through it with his fingers.

"So-so… I guess" I say, and I realize how ragged my voice sounds. My throat dry and rusty feeling. "How long have I been out?" asking the question, I immediately regret it. I don't want to know, and if he's been anything like he is now, I wouldn't want to have to make him think about it. He looks like he ponders on the question, which is never a good thing. I wiggle a bit in the hospital bed, and feel a pain in my rib, which worries me, but I'm almost positive that it's nothing more than what the doctors already know about.

"About three days" he says, not allowing emotion to drip through. I wish I could say that he really did feel something, but I'm not so sure. I feel his fingers slide closer to my hand, but I don't dare look down to our hands, that are now loosely laced together. "I was so worried about you" he whispers, and I feel his hot breath on my cheek as I close my eyes. His other hand that once was in my hair now lays on the side of my face, cradling it, and I lean into it. His face gets closer, but a thought comes to me that I couldn't possibly suppress. But then his face comes closer, and I find a new possibility. My eyes close for a second, then open again to find him staring at me intently, and I become nervous. "What?" I ask sheepishly, my cheeks turning a dark shade of red. I look away from him, but no sooner I do, he pulls my face back towards him. Tobias shakes his head a bit, mostly to himself before answering. "Nothing," he whispers. "Absolutely nothing"

Staring for another few seconds more, before finally making some kind of move. He inches his face closer to me, our lips touching just barely as he whispers the final words. Then he kisses me, and as cliché as it is, sparks fly. It is everything I expected, and nothing like what I expected all at the same time. It was unexplainably amazing. Though it was soft and gentle, he pulls his mouth away from mine for a spare second, both of us dragging in a deep, raged breath, before he presses his lips back to mine again, firmer this time. I let my arms wrap around his broad shoulders, pulling him down to me a bit, letting him know that it's okay. To tell him that I'm okay with what we're doing even though I'm not, as if I can stop it. My hands run across his shoulders, feeling the firm muscle beneath his thin t-shirt, which makes me wish that it wasn't there. His one hand, which once was entangled with mine, makes its way up my bare up, and up to my shoulder which is covered on by the plastic-like hospital gown I'm wearing. His hands slide down the sides of my chest, which makes me become nervous, but they move further down, settling on each side of my waist, massaging my stomach a bit with his thumbs. I told myself before it even started that I wasn't going to allow this, and look where we're at now. _Making out in a hospital bed in a world surrounding us that is inevitably falling apart_. I play with the ends of his hair, which has only grown out maybe an inch, but I like it short. I feel him shuffle a bit as he slides his shoes off before he places his knee on the edge of my bed, getting impossibly closer to me. But I like his warmth. His tongue swirls across my bottom lip, asking for entrance but I pull away. Partially because I don't want to take it too far, too fast, and partially because I can't breathe and my ribcage began aching. He pulls away too, staring at me intently, his eyes darker than what they once were only minutes ago.

We both breathe, and I wince at the sharp pain around my stomach, only allowed to take shallow breaths. His hand finds my hair again, tangling through it again, pulling a bit, but not hard, while his other remains on my waist. My hands still entangled around his neck, playing with the ends of his hair out of habit. I finally catch my breath enough to where it's steady, and I'm the first to talk, but its worry that bubbles inside of me. "Please tell me that you're not just doing this because of what you saw between Zeke and I the other day, or just a replacement for Lauren" I ask, pleadingly, suddenly out of breath once again. "Please," I whisper. His eyes widen for second at my accusation, but he looks at me again. Before answering, he presses his lips to mine once again, gently, and only for a second or two.

"This isn't about Lauren" he begins, skipping what I said about Zeke, which worries me. "I realize that what happened to her was her own fault, and I can see now how ignorant she was. I'm not sure why I was so blind to that when she was alive, because what I had for her wasn't love. And I also have to apologize. I shouldn't have blamed you for what happened to Lauren, I knew that it wasn't your fault, I always knew that. I guess I was just looking for someone to blame, and that shouldn't have been you. I'm truly sorry Tris" he says, and I see the tears come to his eyes. _This is the first time I've ever seen him even remotely cry._ He leans up to me again, pressing his lips to mine for only a second, and when he pulls back, the tears are gone, and are replaced with a certain look. Almost, jealousy. "As for Zeke. I can't say that I'm not doing this now because of him, but not for the reason you think. When I saw you and Zeke, kissing in the hall the other day, I don't know… I got jealous." He says it was a certain disgust that makes me believe it. "I heard you say that you'd give him a chance and that broke me. I'm not sure what else was said, but then I watched you guys just run off together, how he made you laugh, and I wanted to be that guy. I'm not doing this to try to make him jealous or angry, if you tell me no, by all means that is your right. It was my fault for taking so long to figure out what I wanted. But I'm doing this because I feel like _this _is right. And I love you, even though I've tried not to" he finishes, remaining calm between his words. I wish I couldn't forgive him, I wish I could just love Zeke, and hate Tobias for what he did to me, but I can't. _And someone is going to get hurt in the end._

I let my mind wander for a few minutes, raking my mind for the right words to say even though there are none. I am absolutely speechless. "Promise me something" I whisper, trying to change the subject a bit. Now he sits on the edge of the bed, his shoes slipped back on, and his hand playing with mine, swirling around the palm of my hand, tickling me, and playing with my fingertips a bit. He nods, allowing me to continue as he stares at me intently once again. "Promise me that we'll take it slow, make sure it's right and that we'll keep it quiet for a while, just for us because it'd be nice to have something special." I whisper, sitting up in my bed some, so we're close again, our chests almost touching. His fingertips still trailing up and down my stomach and waist, sending shivers through my spine, and I leave my arms hanging across his shoulders, pulling us closer. "I told myself that I wouldn't love anyone after this all happened, but I can't keep myself from you. _I can't keep myself from the only thing that I've ever really wanted, even when they didn't want me_" I whisper, mostly to myself, than anyone else. But I know he heard me.

He nods to me, staring off in the distance, somewhere behind me and I know he's agreeing with me. "I promise you." He whispers back to me. And we sit there for another while in each other's silence, enjoying being wrapped up in each other. "By the way," he begins, leaning closer to my ear with a silly grin across his face now. As he leans closer, I feel his hot breath on my ear and across my neck, and I suddenly wish we were completely alone right now, his lips back on mine. "This wasn't how I imagined our first kiss, but I liked it" he whispers, then pulling away with a glint in his eye. I bit my bottom lip, my cheeks turning redder than what they already were and I look away. He hooks his finger around my chin, causing me to look him in the eyes again, which are now serious. "That's a good thing. And you're beautiful by the way" he says, which makes my shade nearly as red as a tomato by now but I can't help when my lips turn up a bit in a shy smile.

We sit there again in silence, which is soon broken by a knock at the door. I sit back some, my head lying against the bed, but Tobias doesn't move, his hand still gripping mine, firmer now. Not giving us a moment to reply after the knock, a girl walks in. I say a girl, but she's a woman, just short and petite. She has long pale blonde hair, almost like mine but more white, almost like a ghost. Her skin is pale, her cheeks a cherry colored pink that makes her look like a child, but her smile is wide and bright despite being in a place like this. _It even makes me want to smile a bit_. She comes up to me, holding her hand out, and I shake it gently. "Hi, I'm Marlene Waters, I've been your doctor and caretakers for the past couple days. We can assess your injuries here in a moment, but we first we must talk with-" she says, a smile remaining, and her voice gentle and feather like. She is interrupted by Max walking in, along with a badly injured Eric, and woman with a clipboard who looks like she's swallowed a textbook. "Hello Beatrice-" Max begins, but I quickly interrupt him, the usage of my full name enraging. The sight of him enraging me.

"It's Tris" I mutter through gritted teeth, angry. I feel Tobias' thumb wash over the top of my hand, soothingly, as I try to calm down. "Ah, Tris" he mutters, and I find the girl with fake glasses rolling her eyes at me. "Well, I came to notify that you will be evicted from Dauntless at the soonest opportunity" I try to interrupt him, but I choke on my own words, speechless once again, so Max continues. "Wandering the halls, entering prohibited areas of the compound, tardy to your duties, assaulting one of our own Dauntless leaders, then stealing a truck and destroying it" I go to deny the final claim, but that would require throwing Zeke under the bus. _I feel as if I've hurt him enough as it is, so I remain silent_. "Why, Ms. Prior, you haven't been awake here in Dauntless for even a day. How is it that you've created so much havoc that you're lucky to even be alive?" He asks, and I almost want to grin at what he's calling me. A havoc, reckless, irresponsible. All the things I've wanted to feel since this all started. "Ms. Waters will assess your injuries, and give you the minimal amount of bed rest where you will remain in this room with a twenty four hour watch, then escorted out at the earliest opportunity. Thank you" he speaks formally, which I despise, but a laughs bubbles inside of me as him, Eric, and his nerd go out to the door.

I laugh as I speak, "I love how you feel so threatened by a sixteen year-old girl. Better sleep with your eyes open" I whisper evilly to them as I laugh. I feel as if I've truly gone mad. The laugh settles down as they leave and I feel my chest begin to pound harder. The thing wrapped around my chest that takes my heart rate causes a faster beeping on the machine above me, and I become dizzy. The objects in front of me become blurry. Tobias becomes blurry, and the world starts spinning. I close my eyes, then open them again, trying to regain my vision with no success. I close my eyes again, keeping them that way, then I allow the beeping, and the voices to fade away. The light that once peered through my closed eye lids now gone, as I fall back into my peaceful deep sleep again.

A/n- So I guess there's not much to say since I'm writing this about two weeks in advance, but how 'bout that FourTris though, ey? So, can I get some good reviews for this chapter? I will be having another contest (I guess that's what I can call it) this Thursday, so be prepared for that and yea, thanks for reading.

P.S. I have a question for ya'll, does anyone watch Eye Candy? I do and I freaking love it! So, I guess I just want to know if anyone loves it as much as I do. (I doubt it) Lol. Okay, I'll stop talking now.


	11. Chapter 11

A/n- okay, so normally I don't start a chapter with an a/n but I wanted ya'll to know that I'm starting something a little different. When I write, I listen to Pandora, so from now own, I'm going to have a 'song of the chapter' sort of thing. So yea, I'm not going to make this a big thing, just wanted to let you know.

**Song of the Chapter: Down to the Second by Zach Berkman. I recommend listening to it while the guards are taking Tris out, and while she's running and fighting and stuff. **

Last of Us- Chapter 11

Turns out, that I had a panic attack. I'd woken up about three hours later at around 1 A.M., to find about ten faces surrounding me, staring at me intently. I'd wondered who'd half of them were, why they were staring at me, but I knew I'd be quickly introduced because I was wide awake then. Three days of sleep can do that to a person. I saw a few familiar faces. Will, Christina, Tori, Zeke and of course Tobias. Marlene was also in there, checking my vitals, and I was introduced to a dark skinned girl named Shauna, who was extremely tall and fit. And a bulky look boy named Al, who reminded me a lot of Eric in a way, if you take away his hair. We'd sat there talking for an hour or two before everyone finally went back to the dorms, or their apartments. Tobias stayed true to his promise, and did as much as he could to suppress any feelings or thoughts that he had throughout the night. But I saw the look he had sometime. The look like he just wanted them to get out, at some moments I couldn't have agreed more. Tobias told the others that he'd be leaving in just a moment, but he'd stayed by my side all night.

It's been a week since then, and I will be leaving Dauntless soon, sometime today. I've already told everyone about it, but the dread still fills within me. _I have nowhere to go_. Tobias has insisted that he's going with me, but I continuously try to convince him not to. I would never try to put his life at risk for the needs of my own. I was situated that Tori would stay of course, but I'd take Adrian with me. Tori and I talked about, we were going to leave Adrian with her, but I couldn't leave her without any of her family, when everyone else is already gone. Tobias and I have taken it slow, but the only reason we haven't gone any further is because of the guard standing outside of my room all day and night. So we've left it at make outs, and touching. Though I am dreading having to find a place to stay again, all I've wanted since the second I got here is to leave. I don't trust these people. For the mean time, I got Tobias to agree that he's staying here in Dauntless, which is all I was really worried about. As for my injuries, they were surprisingly minimal. I had a gash on the side of my head, which now leaves a star shaped scared on my temple. I had a broken rib, or at least cracked, which is why that area was hurting, but it's gotten better over time. And the worst of it was my head; there was some brain damage upon the impact, which probably contributed to the coma and panic attack. But everything is somewhat better now. As for Zeke, he amazingly came out only with the cut across his forehead

Deep in my thoughts, sunken somewhere that I'd prefer not to return from but I do. I'm called out of my slumberous mind, by a deep voice. I look towards the door to find the guard who has so kindly guarded my door for the past week, joined by two others, ready to escort me out. The guards had told Tobias to leave the room about an hour, which he did, unwillingly, but he did. So I was left alone, only with my thoughts. Christina brought me some clothes last night, which is changed into this morning as I was too tired to last night, to discover that they wrapped a pocket knife between the materials, which I am now thankful for. I push the sheet off that was lazily resting on my legs, and move, so they're dangling off the edge. I stare at my feet for a moment or two before standing. I feel weak, my legs feel like jelly beneath me as they wobble a bit, and I'm suddenly unsure how I'm supposed to save myself when I can barely walk. "Time to go Tris" the one guard says, I find his eyes sympathetic. I go over to them, and he grabs my arm. I know I have the knife hidden between my dark jeans that cling to my skin, and the leather of my boots, but I don't use it. _I know it's no use_. I let the guards practically drag me around the hallways, not paying any attention to where they're taking me. I'd told them days ago that my sister would be going with me, so I assumed that's where they were taking me. I pay no attention until I find that I'm outside, the air, which has steadily become colder, the wind prickling my skin. I turn to them to find their blank faces, the one still sympathetic, but I don't want his sympathy.

"Where's my sister?" I grit out, as an attempt not to scream, and one of them squeezes my forearm tighter, leaving finger prints across it as bruises. They continue to push me towards the gates, but I begin to stall, pushing against them. Their fingers on my arm tighter, the grip finally hurting, but I don't stop. "Where's my sister?!" I yell, louder this time, now angry. _They're taking me away from my sister, the only family I have left_. They ignore my protests once again, and we're now closer to the gate that is swarmed with walkers, all growling and groaning at the scent of my boiling blood. And the sound of my patronizing screams. The one who'd squeezed my arm tighter pushes the bottom allowing the gate to open, and I fight against them even more. I finally stop my feet, as they just drag. "You promised I'd get to have my sister. You liar, you fucking liar!" I begin to scream uncontrollably, protesting against their arms of restraint. I continue until I feel his mouth come to my ear, the sympathetic one. "Walk about a mile up on this path that we're leading to. You'll find everything there" he whispers in my ear, before quickly pulling away. This causes me to go slack, as they finish dragging me out of the gates before closing them again, dropping me on the ground. I sit there for a minute, before looking towards the gates to see the other two guards hadn't given me a second look, while the one stared at me for a moment, he nodded to me, then turned around and walked back with the others.

Growling all around me, and their fingers cling to me, clawing at my clothes, trying to take me. _Trying to make me one of their own_. I pull the knife that is clipped to the side of my boot, sliding it open. I stab the one had its face near mine, as if trying to inspect me, _finding my flaws_. My foot collides with the other one that has its fingers wrapped around my arm loosely, sending it onto it's back. I turn, to find at least 5 clawing at the jacket covered skin across my back, and I shove the blade into each of their skulls quickly, as I watch the one before drop. There are so many, there's no way I can kill them all. I kick and push and shove the dozens of them off of me, before running. I run as fast as I can with my now weak and jelly like legs. I feel the tears come to my eyes, and fall down my cheeks as I run. _I'm dying… I'm going to die_.

I keep running, pushing a few of the unhuman creatures out of my way before their disgusting claws come in contacts with my skin. The sun is finally going down, telling me that it is around five or six at night. I slowed my run down to only a jog, but I still feel the now dry tears on my cheeks, as new tears replace them. Finally too tired to run, I collapse in the middle of the road, surrounded by walkers and the forest. I remember what the guard said to me, _'Walk about a mile up on this path that we're leading to. You'll find everything there'_, he said. But I've run at least a mile now, how could I not have found the supplies he was talking about. I feel my throat becoming dry, and I find how desperate I am for water. _I need water, or I'm going to die_. I pick myself up from the ground and look around me. I pull the knife out of my boot, sliding it open before cutting the incoming walker, causing a gash across its neck. Because of how close I am standing to it, blood gets all over me. My face, hair, and clothes. _I hope there's extra clothes with those supplies, _I think. I wipe the blood from around my mouth and eyes, I go to switch the pocket knife shut before finding something cut into the blade, engraved by another knife, a message.

_As the guard says, then look up_, it says. I assume that I've run about a mile now, so I look up, not at the clear blue sky, because I know that wouldn't help me. But I look around, each direction of the never ending road, then in the tree line. In the tree line, I find in the distance, what looks to be a mountain, not big, but still a mountain. It's not much, but it's the only hope I have. The sun is steadily going down now, lying on the horizon. I've only got a few minutes of daylight left, then I'll be running in the dark. My feet begin running before my mind tells them to, and I run almost faster than when I ran earlier. Luckily there aren't as many walkers in the forest as there are on the main roads, but there are some. I now keep my knife out, running with it, staring at the message every so often. My legs now ache, threatening to collapse beneath me if I dare stop for a moment. My feet feel almost numb, bleeding from the blisters that cover them. But I don't stop running. Though the sun is finally set, I watch as the mountain comes closer as I run impossibly faster. Finally I find my hand on the mountain, leaning over with my other hand on my knee. Hunched over, the burning in my throat now almost unbearable as I beg for some kind of water. I know a have to get up the mountain, and luckily it's not very steep, but I feel as if I don't have any energy left within me. The walkers' blood now tried onto my clothes, hair, and skin, mixed within my own sweat and blood.

I find that I'm still clinging onto that knife, because it's saved my life. After barely catching my breath again, I place both of my hands on the cold rock. The steadily chilling air and wind, whips against my skin, causing it to burn. And as I inhale heaving breaths, it burns my lungs. I place my right fight first, on a ledge, which breaks, causing me to fall again, scraping my elbow. I cringe at it, not daring to make a sound nor do I look at the now bloody injury. I keep climbing, one hand after the other, and one foot after the other. About mid-way up, I pause. Standing there for a moment I look towards the top of the mountain. I hear crumbling below my feet, then cracking. Then I'm falling, I scream for only a spare second then bite my bottom lip to stop, causing the dry cracks in it to open, as I feel it begin to bleed. I ignore the burning sensation on my knee as I feel the cold draft hit it, telling me that my jeans ripped at the knee while scraping against the rock. Cuts are all over my fingers as I clung to the rocks for dear life, reached for something as I fell. I continue to climb.

As I come to the top, about a foot left, I reach for the top and pull myself over the edge. I pull myself over, my knee scraping against the edge, causing it to bleed even further is it practically pours down my leg. My hands hurt from the cuts and bruises all over them, the wind bone chillingly cold, causing my hands to go painfully numb. I finally allow the tears, which had been swimming in my eyes, to fall silently as I lay atop the rock. At the moment, I completely forget about whatever I actually came here for. "Tris?" I hear, but I don't pick my head up to look around. _I don't care_. _You're hallucinating, _I tell myself. "Tris?!" I hear again. I look around me, but the world is spinning. _No one is going to save me, I am alone. _I feel the blood as it drips down my legs, then off of my fingertips. I blink once, then again, and my vision clears about, the world is no longer spinning. Once I can see straight for the most part I stand, wobbly, but I stand. I first place both of my feet on the ground, and straighten my legs out, but I become dizzy again. I lean down again and put my hand on the ground to regain my balance, then stand again slowly, my arms out to keep my balance. When I'm finally fully standing I spin around, taking in my surroundings. I look towards the far side to find people running towards me, I can't tell who it's so blurry and I feel as if I am hallucinating again. They run towards me and as they get closer, I see who. Christina, Will, Al, Shauna, Zeke, and Adrian. And Tobias. _They did this, this was all on purpose_. Although my legs are begging me not to, I run towards them. I run to Tobias.

When I get to him, I wrap my arms around his shoulders. He places his lips on mine, forgetting all about hiding it. His hand finds my bloody hair that's tied up in a loose ponytail, his other hand cradles my cheek. It was short, and short, and loving. He pulls away staring into my eyes, he has a small smile on his face but he doesn't look completely happy. He looks my body up and down, eyes widening at my injuries. "This wasn't my idea Tris, I promise you. I didn't want to do it like this, but there was no other way," he whispers in my ear. I look in his sad eyes for a moment before I turn away, to everyone else, to find them watching us. I lean down to Adrian, who looks worried as she watches the blood drip down my leg. "Hey chipmunk…" I whisper to her, then giving her a hug, and a kiss on the cheek before turning to everyone else. I give everyone a hug, saying 'thanks' to each of them. I feel the exhaustion catching up to me, and I become dizzy again. I feel as if I'm nearly falling over again, when I feel strong arms wrap around me, and pick me up off my feet. Then it's dark again, the pain soothing me to sleep.

A/n- so, did that suck? It took me a little while to write because the chapters without much talking is a bit hard. But anyway, I hope you liked it, and please review. I think I said I'd be having a contest again today, but I'm actually going to have it on Tuesday, where I'll explain the details of it. Alright, so thanks for reading! Bye!


	12. Chapter 12

**Song of the chapter: Comes and Goes (In Waves) by Greg Laswell.**

Last of Us- Chapter 12

I'm awake, but then again I'm not. I feel padding underneath my back, nearly as comfortable as the hospital bed that was mine for over a week. The light from what I assumes is the sun is bright against my eye lids, causing me to pry the open. When I do, I regret is immensely, and wish that I could just go back to sleep. I take in my surroundings to find that I'm in a building, a decent sized room. There are desks and chairs pushed into the corner and posters all over the walls, it looks like an elementary school classroom (a/n- for those of you in other countries, I'm not sure what they call young children's classrooms where you live, but that's what this is). I look across the room to find the others all gathered in a circle, laughing and talking, Adrian sitting on Tobias's lap sleeping soundly. I push the covers of the sleeping bag off and find that I'm changed into a large t-shirt and soft black shorts that don't even go to my mid-thigh. I also find that my knee and hands are all wrapped with manila covered bandages, and my hair damp with water. I stand carefully, and look out the windows that were once covered with no wide spread blinds, the sun already going down again. I wonder how long I've slept this time, considering I wasn't awake for any of the changes that they made to me. I walk slowly over to the group and take a sit next to Tobias, lying my head on his shoulder which is hard with taught muscles.

Everyone bids me a simple 'hello' or 'how are you feeling?' but I don't acknowledge them. I don't feel like talking, my head is pounding and I know that if I do anything serious, the world will begin to spin again. Tobias moves Adrian over to his left shoulder before wrapping right arm around me, allowing me to lay my head against his chest which isn't at all softer. He rubs the tips of his fingers over the bare skin of my legs, which are curled into my chest, causing my skin to prickle. He leans his head over to my hair, which I notice smells like orange orchids during summer, the best smell when I lived in Texas. I hear him inhale slightly, before moving his mouth closer to my ear. "How're you feeling?" he asks, and I only shrug. I can't tell him that I wish I could just sleep my life away because I have nothing worth living for anymore. "Where are we?" I ask out loud, interrupting everyone else's conversation, as they all turn to look at me. I can't pretend like I'm not mad at them, because I am, they could've told me the plan so I didn't nearly kill myself trying to find something that I didn't even think existed.

Christina is the first to speak, which I am somewhat thankful for. I don't want any of these strangers to tell me where we're at. "A school, in Oklahoma, about an hour from the Texas border. When we got word of you being kicked out of Dauntless, a few of us started looking for a place to stay, and started bringing supplies. You've only been asleep for about a day, and as soon as you knocked out yesterday, we got you fixed up and came here." Christina says, and I look down towards the new clothes and bandage that cover my skin. I guess I must look angry, or maybe confused, because she continues. "Tris, you have to understand. What happened to you wasn't our intentions, we knew you'd find us, but we couldn't tell you because you'd tell us not to go. And we couldn't leave you out here alone. Look at you. You were out there alone for maybe a few hours, and you nearly got yourself killed. You're reckless Tris, and I worry about your mentality" she states honestly. I'm not sure why, but this infuriates me. I know it's true, so I know it shouldn't anger me, but it does.

My mind contorts from boredom and tiredness, to anger. "You don't think I know that. But I can take care of myself," I burst. I go to continue, but I decide better of it. I stand, and find my jacket and boots near the sleeping bag that I was once in. I put the two things on, the boots looking a bit odd with the short exercise shorts that I'm wearing. I slide the same pocket knife in the side of my boot before loading a gun and carrying it with me. I hear Tobias call my name, trying to keep me from going, but I leave anyway, slamming the door behind me. I find that the entire school, though isn't enclosed and the moment I walk out, I am hit with the cool air that feels good against my aching skin. But the entire school enclosed in gates, a smooth clack metal the runs from the ceiling to the floor of the brick building. _Literally a jail_. I walk, sliding my hand against the bars, walkers on the other side begging for taste of my skin. I let my cutting fingertips glide over a few for only a second while I walk. I find myself wandering around the large school, the only sounds are the growling on the other side and my feet against the brick. Minutes later, I'm climbing up stairs, wandering to what looks like a library. There are what look like colorful dragons floating all around the ceiling of the room, help up by thin strings. You could smell that has settled atop the books over the weeks, as it climbs into your nose making it difficult to breathe. There are about a dozen bulky desktop computers in a corner sitting on wooden desks. Four shelves that run almost a hundred feet long filled with books of all kinds. In the corner opposite of the computers is a large desk where I assume you'd check out books, with an enclosed office behind it. And finally, in the center, between each side of two book shelves each, there are an assortment of chairs. Chairs with desks in front of them, rocking chairs, and bean bags. I decide that it's been awhile since I've actually relaxed any, without worry that someone is mad at me, or how I'm going to live, so I sit back into one of the black bean bags. My clothes blending into the soft, worn, leather, but my skin standing out against it brightly. I sit there with my head back, now listening to the peaceful silence. _The first silence I've heard in forever_. And I let my mind wander to places other than dying.

My peaceful silence is sadly ending minutes later as I hear my name being called from the door. I try to ignore it at first, but I continues. "Tris?" I hear someone call. I assume its Tobias by the male voice, which I'm not so sure I want to talk to him right now, but I'm wrong. Zeke comes around the corner, his eyes widen when he finds me just lying there, not wanting to kill something, or die myself. "What're you doing here?" He asks, taking a seat in the beanbag closest to me, placing a hand on my thigh. It looks odd, that a nineteen year old man sitting in a young child's bean bag, but I suppress a laugh. "Peaceful silence," is all I say, and he nods in agreement. And we sit there for another while just enjoying it. "Do you want to talk about it?" Zeke asks, but I shake my head. _I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to talk about anything_. I stand from my beanbag and walk over to the window with open curtains. I sit on the ledge of the window sill, and twist around so I can look out the window. I watch all over the walkers' just wandering around aimlessly. This may be a funny though, but you'd think that something that eats brains would be smarter. I laugh at the silly thought, before erasing it from my mind. I shouldn't be joking right now. Minutes later Zeke joins me over by the window. He leans against the edge, his hands on either side of my legs which are dangling over the edge. I feel as if he's staring at me more than he is outside, but ignore it until it becomes unbearable.

"What?" I ask him sheepishly, my voice cracking like a middle school girl going through puberty. I finally meet his stare, and watch his eyes wander my body. He shakes his head, and I look down again, red covering my cheeks as I feel them heat up. He hooks is forefinger around my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze again. And before I know what's happening, his lips meet mine. I try to push him away, or maybe I don't, but I don't have the heart to do it. He kisses me, and though I don't stop it, I don't do anything to continue. But then I do, I wrap my arms around his shoulders and tilt my head just a little bit. His hands find the skin beneath my shirt, and rests them at my waist. He moves his mouth away from mind, and down towards my jaw line, and continues down my neck. All I can do is sit there with my eyes closed, and think about how good it feels, and how I want more, and how I wish it was with Tobias. _But I'm not with Tobias_; _I want this to be with Tobias_. I finally remember what I'm doing and push Zeke back some, but his lips find mine again. I push him back again. "Stop" I mumble breathlessly, but he comes back towards me again. "Stop" I say, louder this time, and push him away again before quickly jumping off the ledge. He looks upset, angry almost, while his hair is wild and shirt is disheveled.

Then he looks furious. "You promised me Tris! Why can't you just keep a damn promise for once in your pathetic life!" he yells at me, and the tears well up in my eyes. I walk back some until my back hits a shelf. He walks closer to me, inch by inch, and I feel a tear slide down my cheek. _I shouldn't be afraid of him_. "You promised me that you'd give it another chance. Then you turn around and put your tongue down some random guy's throat, who you don't even know. Whose girlfriend you _killed_," he grits out. More tears come to my eyes, and fall onto my cheeks at once, rapidly. Zeke's right, I killed Tobias' girlfriend, why would he want me. I only shake my head slowly, but I don't stop. _I try to convince myself that the things that he's telling me aren't true, but I know they are. I killed her_.

I turn and run out the library door, and I keep running because it seems to relieve some kind of stress. _More than silence can. Because in silence, the voices of all of those gone come back, and haunt me_. I run around aimlessly, as I've lost my way again. I continue to run around for a while longer, the cold prickling my skin causing it to become chilled. But I don't care. I finally find the room, with a blue metal door, which has torn '1st grade' sign on the door. The tears were still streaming down my face as I ran, now nearly dry now, only distinguished by my bloodshot eyes. My cheeks red, and lips chapped from running with the wind whipping against my face. I open the door, and this time it slams behind me unpurposefully. Everyone, who still sits in a circle besides Zeke, turns towards the door to look at me. I notice this time as I walk in, that mine is the only sleeping back on the floor in here, but everyone else's scattered around the room also. I climb into mine, pulling the blanket up, over my chest. I try to sleep, I try to let my eyes fall shut, but I can't. Moments later Tobias comes, over to me. He silently picks me up, and lies down, lying me next to him before covering us both up. Tobias holds me tightly into his chest, and I bury my face into his thin shirt. The sun is now set, and I feel almost safe. Almost peaceful again, although there is no silence. I feel his lips against the top of my head, pressing a kiss into my hair. "I don't know what's happened to you Tris, but come back to me" he whispers to me. My eyes fall shut at the sound of his soothingly rough voice, but before I fall entirely asleep. A single tear of his falls against my cheek.

A/n- so, I know this is a bit of a short chapter, and I know you guys are probably getting pissed at me for ending chapters this way, and I'm sorry. But I hope that the actual chapters are good. But they only way I'd know that is if you REVIEW, so please review. **I'm having a new contest this week, anyone who reviews on this story, will get the character profiles for each main character of my new story, 'Saint and The Sinful' which premieres February 23rd, and these will be important because the characters are a bit OC in this story. **So yea, please favorite, and follow, and review, and tell your friends because you all would be great readers if you did. Not that you're not already good readers, but you know what I mean. I'm going to stop talking now. Thanks for reading! Bye!

P.S. sorry this is kind of late, I had to go to the dentist, and they like drilled my tooth and stuff... so needless to say, my mouth freaking hurts! :D


	13. Chapter 13

**Song of the chapter: Talking Body by Tove Lo**

Last of Us- Ch. 13

Inhaling a deep breath as I sit up quickly, my eyes shoot open. I continue to breathe deeply until my lungs burn. _It was a dream, only a dream_. I tell myself but I continue to breath, barely calming my racing heart. I feel a hand on my waist, then climbing beneath my shirt to rub my back. "Come here," he whispers, sounding like he's wide awake. I lay back down, settling in Tobias' arms. I lay my head against his chest, running only my fingertips up and down his now bare chest and torso. He has one arm around me, rubbing my waist a side softly, and his other meeting mine as he rubs the top of my hand with his thumb. "Want to talk about it?" He whispers to me, and I shake my head. My uninjured left leg wrapped around his, I pick my head up from his chest to lean up to him, placing a gentle kiss against his soft lips. Opposite of mine which are dry and cracked.

I pull away, but keeping my face next to his, as I feel his hot breath on my skin. "I'm sorry I woke you up" I whisper, sadly. He shakes his head to my, pulling my lips back down to his and another soft kiss, but not as short. We lie there for a moment, our lips moving together peacefully as he now slides his hands up my back, then back down to my waist, squeezing a bit, before moving back up my back. He begins to whisper something, and I pull away for a moment so I can hear him. "I haven't been sleeping well" he whispers, "but I'm glad I was awake." He has a small, silly grin on his face before pushing his lips back against mine, more roughly this time. I have my arm across his chest, holding myself up as he tilts my head to the side slightly to deepen it. Tobias turns onto his side, his arm underneath my head so I'm lying on his bicep, and lays me onto my back. My leg slides between his, and my arms wrap around his shoulders. Once we get situated again, he swoops back in pressing his lips against mine in another rough but sweet kiss, his other hand cradling my face. For the split second that my eyes were open, I looked out the window to find only a minimal glimpse of sunlight as it was barely rising.

Tobias' hand slides down my body, over every part of me, resting against the skin over my hip bone. I pull one of my arms from his shoulders to pull shirt up some, and his hand follows it the rest of the way. Breaking the kiss for barely a second, to pull the black shirt over my head so now I'm only wearing a sports bra, shorts, and underwear, before connecting them again, fiercely. While we're both sitting up, I put my leg, which was once wedged between his, around his hip, and moving myself to sit just below his torso. Both of his arms now free, the wander up and down my now bare upper body, covered only in a thin, black sports bra. I lean down, laying on his torso and chest, and place my elbows on either side of his head, before pressing my lips to his lightly, before pulling away again. I wiggle my hips slightly, and I press my lips to his again, swirling my tongue across his bottom lip before pulling away again before he can do anything further. I continue this again, and he groans. He squeezes my hips tightly between his thumbs and fingers, and groans as I move again. I press my lips to his, and remain there for a bit longer than before. I go to pull away again, but he groans. He slides his mouth across my jaw, leaving a trail of heat to follow it. Tobias puts his mouth next to my ear, his hot breath tickling me once again, and shivers roll down my spine. "Don't tease me Tris," he whispers into my ear, "I'm not nice when I'm angry." I feel his breath once again against my ear, his takes the skin of my ear between his teeth, biting down a little before moving to my neck.

"Go ahead" I whisper back to him, and he does. He sucks, and kisses, and nibbles on the skin down my neck, shoulder and collar bone and I let a moan out. He connects his mouth again to mine, catching another moan, to be sure to keep the others sleeping. He moves his hands down off my waist, towards my butt, squeezing it roughly before moving down to my thighs. He squeezes a little again, a tries to turn us, but I push his shoulders back down to the blanket. I sit up on his torso, and grab his hands, holding them on each side of his head. He pushes against me, but I use all of my strength to hold him down, and he gives up even though I know he barely tried against me. _He could take over me if he wanted to. He could hurt me if he wanted to. _Still holding his arms down, I move my mouth over to his ear as he did to me, nibbling on the skin of his neck. "I think I can be worse," I whisper into his ear, then lick the shell of his ear. I feel him visibly shudder beneath me, and he breaks through my hands forcefully. He pushes his mouth back to mine, sitting up a little to keep us fully connected as I lean back at the force. And he allows his tongue to wander my mouth for the first time. Every other time that we've kissed, and he's practically begged for entrance, I always told him that I didn't want this to go too fast. But now all I want is everything.

I tear my mouth away from his, and move down further, kissing his chest. I move down, kissing every skin covered muscle I come across, licking and nibbling as I continue to move down. I look up to him to find his head thrown back, with his hands in my messy hair that's tied up in a high, messy ponytail. I move down to the waist band of his dark jeans, pulling them down as far as the belt will allow, which is barely below his v-line. I continue kissing around his torso and chest while fumbling with his belt, but before I could get it undone, he pulls me back up to meet his lips. Kissing me deeply again, his hand finding its way underneath the waist band of my shorts, but resting on my hips. "I don't think we should do this here Tris" he whispers against my lips, "not here, and not with an audience. I want it to be special" he continues, now fully apart from me. He moves his hands back up an inch or two, to my waist, and I sit up some on his torso, still resting my elbows on either side of his head as I look at him. I stare into his once blue eyes, which are now dark, almost black, with lust. I nod, agreeing with him.

This is wrong. I'm not sure if I should be wanting this, I'm not sure if it is right. _But it feels right, and that's all that matters_. "Are you mad?" He whispers to me, staring into my eyes, almost intensely as I am to his. He moves one hand up from my waist, up to the side of my face and I lean into it once again. He places a soft, gentle kiss on my lips, for only a second before pulling a way again. "No… you're right" I whisper back to him, and his concern turns into a small smile on his face. He places another quick kiss on my lips before staring at me, a smile still on his face, making it inevitable for me to be happy also. _This is all I've ever wanted_. He lays me onto my side, and gets up. Leaning down to my ear, he whispers "I love you Beatrice Prior," before planting a final soft kiss onto my lips and leaving me, not giving me the chance to respond, almost afraid of my answer. I watch him as he fixes his hair, tousled by my fingers that once wandered through. He pulls a thin, black t-shirt over his head, covering his taught muscles that I kissed not five minutes ago. He turns to wake up Will and Al, and when he does he exposes his neck to me where I find a nickel sized, purple hickey lying just above his collar bone. I suppress a small laugh, and think about what it'll be like when everyone else finds it, with their accusing looks. And Christina's questioning. And Al's laughter. And Will's inquisitive looks. And Zeke's anger.

I look over to now find Tobias, Al, Will, and Zeke all loading guns, and getting dressed, sliding weapons into their pockets, and boots and any other secluded place. Shauna, Christina, and Adrian all still sound asleep, and I smile at the sound of Adrian's soft snores, and her slowly rising chest, before it falls again. I watch as Tobias leans down, placing a kiss onto Adrian's cheek, and it makes me smile even more. It's amazing how much he cares for her. "Where are you going?" I ask out loud. And they all look to me. Tobias, after loading another small hand gun and strapping it to the holster on his waist, he comes over to me. He leans down to me, who's curled up into the warmth of the blankets, staring up at him like a young child. He places a hand on my face before he speaks. "We're going to search the school and the store close by for any supplies, we're running low" he says to me, not in a whisper, so the rest of the boys can hear us, but his voice still soft and caring. I begin to protest, but I know he has to do what must be done. _This is our life now. _"Tris, I need you to promise me that you won't leave this room until we get back" he continues, still talking aloud. I don't want to have to promise this, but I know he wants me to, it'll make him feel better about the situation.

A/n-** I interrupt this chapter that I absolutely could not freaking wait to tell you! Has anyone seen the new Insurgent trailer that was released 2/12? I've watched it about a 100 times because I am so damn excited! AHHH! Okay, continue reading!**

"Why can't I go with you guys?" I argue, even though I know it's pointless. And he looks at me sadly. Still holding my face in his hands, he leans down further, with one foot on the ground, and one knee on the ground. He places a soft kiss at the corner of my mouth, only furthering the tension. "I'm doing this for you, and for me Tris. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you" he says again, whispering the last part. And I nod to him, agreeing. "Nothing stupid, understand?" he finishes, talking normally again. And I nod my head to him. He smiles, but it doesn't spread to his eyes, and it makes me wonder what he's worried about. He finally places another gentle kiss to my lips, it lasting maybe a minute before he pulls away again, not allowing it to get far. He stands there, just watching me, his hand cradling my face as his thumb washes over my cheek softly.

Finally, he tears his eyes away from mine and stands fully. He turns to the other boys, who are standing by the door talking "Ready?" He asks, now sounding more like Four. That sexy, hidden, Four, who has walls built around him a mile high. They all bid me small good byes considering I'm the only one awake, then they leave.

I sit there for what feels like hours, and I'm sure it has been at least an hour. The rest of the girls are still sleeping, but I couldn't return to that peaceful state without know that Tobias is alright. _Without him next to me. _I decide that I can take this waiting any longer, so I stand from my warm blankets, putting my shirt back on, as I had forgotten to put it on when the other boys saw me in only a sports bra. I grab a pair of black jeans from my bag that fit me a bit too tight for my comfort, but that's all I could find. I gather two of the four guns left that they stole from the Dauntless and loading them. Shoving the same knife into my black boots as I lace them up. I look back towards Christina, Shauna and Adrian who're amazingly still sound asleep before leaving the room. As I follow their possible trail, worry and fear bubble up inside of me.

A/n- There is your freaking FourTris! Lol, keep in mind that that part alone was over 1,000 words of pure FourTris. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed and OMG, what is going on with Four and the rest of the guys huh? You'll just have to wait to find out. But as of right now, because it's a cliffhanger, I'd like to get ten reviews! Thanks for reading!


	14. Chapter 14

**Song of The Chapter- Skinny Love by Birdy.**

Last of Us- Ch. 14

I walk to what I remember as the cafeteria, not exactly sure because I only know where things are at from when I was running. As I walk, I feel the tiny droplets of sweat drip down my forehead and onto my lips, despite the cool air. From anticipation. I hold the gun in my right hand, my grip tightening and loosening nervously, afraid of what I may walk into. I finally find the large room with lines with metal tables and stacks of black, plastic trays. The room is scattered with black and orange tables with the uncomfortable chairs attached to them. I cringe at the memory of having to sit on those. But I quickly remember what I came here for. I wander around the pitch black cafeteria, only lit by the sunlight beaming through the windows. I make my way towards one of the back doorways. Going through, it gets darker than it is where the tables are. I close my eyes, squeezing them shut for a few seconds then opening them again, allowing the room to get slightly brighter than it was before. I place my hand on one of the many cold metal racks, with cans of food on them. _If they're not here, where are they_? "Four?" I call out, not using his really name around people who he doesn't want to know it. As I go to move my hand to the next rack, hands wrap around my arms and shoulder. Looking behind me, all I find is people who're masked with black hooded sweatshirts, hiding their identity. "Fou-" I try to call out again, but one of them covers my mouth. I struggle against their binds, not able to break free. Three presumably men against me, I'm weak. I'm powerless. I continue to struggle as they drag me towards a door at the back of the room.

As they carry me, I'm still for only a moment as I find Will and Four facing a shelf, with their backs turned towards me and a walker. _If I don't do something, they'll die_. The walker inches closer to them silently and I begin to panic again. I try to break free. One of them opens the door, and I find that it leads to outside of the gates, which is surrounded by them. I find that my arm is broken free from the restraints, enough to reach into my boot to grab the gun fit snuggly between the leather and my skin. I grab it, and pull the trigger, firing at whatever was there, and I find that it hit one of the masked men in the stomach. I fire again, now focused on the walker which almost has reached Four and Will. It drops too, and I find Four and Will turn and look at it. The last two of the masked men get the gun from my hand, tossing it to the side of the room, then throwing me out the door before Will and Four look up to find me. And before the door closes, I catch a glimpse of the one whom I shot, as his hood fell off when he fell to the ground. Al. I shot him. He tried to kill me, and by the looks of it, he's succeeded. I'm outside, surrounded by _them, _I have no weapon, and no way to safety.

Looking around me, I find that the other two men are running, now just specks in the distance. I stand up from my spot on the dusty ground, pushing the clawing walkers off of me. I beat the blue metal due, tightly latched shut. "Four!" I yell as I continue to beat the door, "Four, please!" I continues, as I feel them continue to claw my back. Tears well up in my eyes, because I'm not ready to die. _I've gone through too much to die_. "Tris!" I hear his voice on the other side of the door, "the doors stuck, it won't open. Just hold on, we're going to find a way" he says to me, his voice cracking between words. "I love you Tris." And then he's gone. I realize that I have to find something, if I want any chance of living. I run, tearing through the crowds of walkers. As I run, I rake my mind for something to save myself. I look around me, and find that the playground of the elementary school is surrounds by a barbed wire fence. I run faster, towards the fence, gathering a heavy fallen tree branch on the way. The grass, tall and wavy after months with no care, almost reaches my knees, causing my feet to falter. I keep telling myself not to look behind me, that is doesn't matter. And I don't, as my mind focuses on saving myself, I trip over the tall grass. I throw my hands out in front of me to catch myself, and I feel as if I'm being stabbed. I sit up onto my knees to find the sharp pain there also. I hear the growling near me, it comes closer, and I know that I have to run. That I have no time to inspect the warm blood that's dripping down my unhealed fingertips. As I make it to the fence, I reach up pulling down a length of loose barb wire, also weak from the lack of up keeping. The barbs stick my hands and arms, and catches my cheek as I pull it down, the wind blowing it in every which direction. The blood drips down my cheek slowly. Slow enough to ignore it.

The branch, my bloody fingers still wrapped around it, I wrap the barbed wire around it. After it's all wrapped, I pull the thing behind my head and swing. I continue, my arms becoming exhausted as blood drips down me. I feel my forehead, wet with sweat and blood, as heats with exhaustion once again. My face and lips become chapped as the wind whips against my skin roughly, the sky gray and cloudy. My eyes glance up, towards the door where I was once at a few hundred meters away. I find that the door swings open, and Will and Four come out. I pull my eyes back towards what I'm doing as a few of the walkers behind me fall at the fault of a gun. I drop my hand made weapon and run. I run to the door, as Will and Four shoot down a path for me, fumbling back inside the door. As I make it, I tumble inside, slamming the door behind me. Nearly falling as I let the tears slide down my cheeks, I'm enveloped by the two men in front of me. My eyes search the room, to find Al, whose body is brought to lean, slouched against the wall. His lifeless eyes staring back into mine, which only brings another loud sob to course through me. _I killed him_. It remains silent, the only to be heard are the loud sobs coming from my mouth that sound unhumanly. Four and Will's arms still wrapped around me as the tears now form a waterfall down my cheeks. Falling onto their clothes, or skin, or floor. As Al did when I shot him. "I'll carry her, you go get the bags," I hear Will say, as he picks me up, his arms placed gently underneath my bloody and ragged body. His hand, which is placed underneath my head, is brushing the once again blood covered hair out of my face. I keep my eyes now tightly shut, curled into his chest for warmth because I feel as if I'm frozen solid. _Dead. _

The rest of the walk back to the room is a blur, as I process what's happened. _It all happened so fast_. I've almost died for probably the hundredth time by now. Four and Will could've died. I killed Al, then stared it his lifeless eyes and cried as if it wasn't my fault. As he carries me back into the room, I'm placed onto the floor, onto stained white towels. I curl into myself, knees tucked between my encircled arms. I hear the whispers from across the room, but I pay no attention. I only listen to the sound of my discreet sobs, the tears still running down my cheeks soundlessly. I feel a hand placed on my shoulder, soft, and I look at it to find the warm coffee colored skin of Christina. "Let's go get you cleaned up," she whispers me. Without a response, I stand, and head out the door, Christina following closely behind me. _Watching me walk, trying to come up with a reason for every move I make_. As I walk to the bathroom which I was introduced to yesterday. Passing through the blank doorway, I stare at the peeling blue paint, covered with dirt and filth. "What happened?" She asks me. And I stare at her, my face emotionless.

"I killed Al," I tell her. I pondered lying to her, or maybe just telling her that I don't feel like talking about it. _Which I don't. _But I'd assumed that everyone would find out that I was a murderer eventually. _That it's all my fault that he's dead_. She stands there probably shocked. I would've thought that Four or Will had told her, or anyone, but I guess not. Her face in astonishment still, I take the extra pair of clothes from her arms before locking myself inside of the large bathroom stall. Leaning my back against the dirty, white, concrete wall, and allow the tears to once again slip down my face one by one as I hear her footsteps slide out of the bathroom. Even she thinks I'm disgusting, nearly as revolted with me as I am. Because I'm the one who put myself in this situation, I don't dare feel bad for myself. I tear myself from the wall, wiping the tears from my face now angrily. Pulling the knob for the water, and gratefully that there still is some. I place under the water, allowing it to wash all of the cuts and metal and blood off. The water, which was once clear, now is filling the sink full of crimson red blood. Splashing the clear, barely running water onto my face. Metaphorically washing this mask off that I've been wearing. The one that forces myself and everyone else to think I'm okay. _The mask that makes it look like I'm okay, and not steadily falling apart_. I stare at myself in the broken mirror, and I find this pale, skinny girl. Cut up and bruised to no end, with purple rings around her eyes. And a fresh cut going from the temple of her head, down to her jaw. And the other side of her jaw covered with a black and purple bruise.

I tear my eyes from the horrid sight of myself as I fight against my mind on why anyone would want me. Why Four would want me. Pushing any thought from my mind, I continue to rinse my body of the blood and dirt that covers me. By the time I've finished, there's blood covered water everywhere. In the sink, covering the broken mirror, on the floor. And I step in it almost joyfully as it squishes beneath my feet, like mud. I get dressed into what look like the same night clothes as before, the same shorts with a different black t-shirt. Then washing my feet before sliding them back into my boots before they get dirty once again. I stuff my head into the sink, underneath the faucet after the rest of the water has drained, and squeeze and the dirt and blood out of my hair, causing it to be damp again. After rinsing it, I tie the bunch of hair into a knot on the top of my head with the stretched hair band that lies around my wrist. I quickly gather my clothes, rinsing them out in the sink also before leaving. As I unlock the stall door and go out to the main isle with about a dozen sinks, I take one last thoughtless look in the mirror. As I look further, I find something written. By heart begins to pound, and I look around me to find Christina still gone, to be sure that this isn't some joke.

Reading the mirror as it says: 'You have one week to come to the Erudite headquarters in Chicago to save your sister'. My heart pounds heavier as the curiosity bubbles up inside of me as to what they want with me. But then my thought shift to my sister. _They've taken Adrian_. I rush back to the room worriedly, hoping that all of this is a joke or just an empty threat. I try to relax myself some before I get back, slowing my pace to just walking so I don't look as crazy as they all think I am. _Not crazy, a murderer_. I make it back, swinging the door open. I look around to find Adrian lying in her bed reading a book, and a sigh of relief courses through me. _She's okay, she's here, and she's safe_. "Hey Tris, your back," I hear Shauna's voice, as she smiles toward me. _No must've told her yet_. "This is Peter and Drew, we found them outside of the gates as we were walking around, almost dead" she introduces to me. And I find Peter holding his hand out to me, and something that almost looks like the Cheshire cat grin. Then I recognize him, and a lump forms in my throat as I'm suddenly unable to breath.

A/n- Wow, I guess a lot has happened in this chapter, hm? So that's my version of Tris getting attacked and stuff. So, I guess I left it at kind of a cliff hanger, but you'll find out soon! Thanks for reading, and 10 reviews for an update please! Bye!


	15. Chapter 15

**Song of the Chapter- Monster by: Imagine Dragons and If I Lose Myself by: One Republic so**

**Warning: this could have some… um… M related themes, so yeah, just a warning. Enjoy!**

Last of Us- Ch. 15

My eyes wide, I refuse his hand, and push past him. He helped Al nearly kill me. I'm finally able to swallow the lump in my throat as I can breathe, and I throw my damp clothes into the bag that's sitting next to my sleeping bag. I go over to a peaceful looking Adrian, almost clueless looking. I plant a kiss on her forehead before taking a seat in the circle of everyone else who's talking once again. Moments later Tobias comes to sit next to me, Adrian held in his arms. I only glance at him as he listens intently to the conversation. I quickly look away before he finds me staring at him, and tuck my head into my knees, which are encircled by my arms. I pay no attention to everyone conversation once again, not caring, and almost asleep until I feel a strong hand wrap around mine. I feel his gaze burning into my skin, but I don't look at him. _I don't want to find the disappointment_. At my response to his look, he squeezes my hand, as if asking if I'm okay. I squeeze back, not tightly, but enough for him to know that I'm there, because I'm not okay.

And I sit there, for a while just drowning in my own thoughts, and listening to the conversation in parts, but not comprehending. And I let it lull me off to sleep. Though I didn't do much of anything, I feel myself in a deep sleep, only awoken as I'm carried to bed. I feel Tobias lie down beside me, and I curl into his chest, taking in the surprisingly delightful scent. No matter how much I try to force my eyes shut, it doesn't work, and I'm not awake for the night. The worry once again curls inside of me at the thought of Peter. The thought of someone taking my sister. The thought of Al's lifeless eyes staring back into mine after I killed him. And suddenly I become restless. I slowly detangle myself from a sleeping Tobias' arms and stand. Looking around the room, I find that Christina and Will are still awake, talking, but no one else. _At least no one else from what I can see_. I put on my boots, and load a gun, stuffing it and a pocket knife quietly between the leather and my bare skin. Both of the weapons' metal chilling my bones as the handle of each sticks out of the top of my boot a bit. I take one last look at Adrian, whose sound asleep, before I slip out of the door.

I slowly make my way through the dark hallways to the library, where I once found peace. Where I hope to find it again. Once I'm there, I ease myself back into the same the black chair a few days ago. I shut my eyes, and force any thoughts out of my mind. That is, until I hear the door open once again. I don't pick my head up or open my eyes, in hopes that I was only hearing stuff because I don't feel like talking to anyone now. "Why'd you leave?" I hear his voice, sending chills down my spine as I does every time I hear it. I hear the plop of the bean bag as he sits closely beside me. "Christina and Will told me you left, told me that they didn't know if you were okay and that you maybe wanted to talk to someone who… understands," Tobias says to me quietly, maybe concerned. I'm not sure of what he feels, because I don't dare meet his eyes.

This for some reason angers me. People hiding things from me, treating my like some mental patient that needs to me helped. _I don't need help_. "I don't need my boyfriend to play psychologist," I say, finally looking up to him. I find his eyes immediately burn into mine, things that almost look like diamonds, or an oceans. Clear, and blue, and beautiful. And worried. A grin slips to his features, "boyfriend?" He asks, and blood rushes to my cheeks at what I just admitted. _A hope and a want_. He pulls my thin body to sit next to him, closer, so we're touching, and he grabs just above my knee to pull my bare legs across his, which are covered by dull, and bloody black jeans. I evidently shiver at the touch of his fingertips against my skin, and I suddenly want more. I fight against my every nerve not to do anything, to remain still, but it doesn't fight against my desire, as I watch his eyes turn darker. My mind quickly thinks back to what I'd just said, and I try to stutter out a response. "I mean, uh- if you want to…" I mutter, and the red returns to my cheeks. He hooks a finger underneath my chin, causing me to look at him, and I see him serious once again, which only causes the anxiety to bubble within me even more. "I'd love to, Tris" he whispers to me, and his lips press to mine softly for only a second or two. _One good things that's happened in a day of misery_.

I'm not sure what possessed me to ask this, but I do. "Why?" I ask him. He looks at me confusedly, and I'm embarrassed once again, not sure as of why I'd ask that. Maybe because it's true. Maybe because I do wonder why he, or anyone would love me. I decide to continue, as I know I'm not able to take the words back. "Both of my parents are dead. My Brother left without a single to word to me. I killed your ex-girlfriend. I only kissed Zeke to get you angry, then promise him a second chance while kissing you right in front of him. Then I just stared into Al's dead eyes after I killed him. I'm a murderer Tobias, why would you want me?" I complete, the tears now streaming down my face one by one, silently. No matter how much I was against talking about it, it feels good. He wipes the tears off of my cheeks with the pad of his thumb, as he watches my eyes flood once again.

"We've all done things we regret Tris" he says to me, and he captures me in his gaze again. "But no matter what you do, I will always want you. I've always wanted you," he whispers to me. I nod my head in agreeance, then lie my head on his chest as I sit more on his lap. I'm thankful that he didn't notice, or at least didn't acknowledge that I know that Caleb isn't dead. We lie there silently, one of my arms stretched across his torso, clinging to him. And one of his arms rests across my left at my ankles and his other hand lying on my leg right below the small shorts, his thumb sliding against the bare skin of my thigh. "I don't even know who I am anymore" I whisper to him. He moves his hands from my legs, causing a frown to come to my face as I wanted more, and takes either side of my head into his hands. "I know exactly who you are" he says back to me, his thumb now gliding across my cheek, sliding across the now dry tears.

I'm wary of who he thinks I am, because it's the complete opposite of who I know I am. A liar, a rebel, a murderer. "You sure about that?" I say to him, now out loud. He stares at me, thinking, before nodding a bit. "I'm very sure," he whispers back to me again. And I lay back against his chest once again, silently. I lie there, thinking for a while, and my mind wanders to the message to me in the bathroom. The one that told me to leave my sister, in order to save her. _It doesn't make sense_. But I push the thought to the side, deciding that it may've been for someone else, or written there before we even got here. And I decide against telling Tobias. I look up to him, and find him already look down to me. He has a small, content smile on his face and I lean up, pressing my lips to his softly. We stay like that, simply, for maybe a minute before he pulls away. A frown travels to my face at thought that I did something wrong until he speaks. "Would you be angry if I told you that I liked this morning?" he asks me, and at his words, my frown is easily replaced. I turn over, so my legs are on either side of his waist as I sit up on his lap. I place my hands on either side of his face gently, my fingertips grazing his neck and jawline. And his loosely holding my waist, then fluctuating to a tight grip as he anticipates my response.

"Would you be mad if I said that I want more?" I whisper against his lips, and he smiles to before pressing our lips together once again, fiercely. I press my body against his torso and chest, causing any space between us to evaporate. I tilt my head a bit and his hands move down some, past my lower back to the thin hips, small with the lack of nourishment, the same way the rest of my body is. He squeezes tightly with almost restraint as I hear him groan against my lips. I glide my hands down his chest and torso, and to the hem of his black t-shirt, pulling it up some, so I can rest the palms of my hands against his tanned, bare waist. He pulls his body away from mine, only long enough to reach for the back of the collar of his shirt, pulling it over his head before tossing it somewhere stranded on the floor. Not seconds later after abandoning his shirt, he kisses me again, roughly this time, filled with desperation. One arm wrapped completely around my lower back and waist, and the other entangled in my hair on the bag of my head, each inch of him pulling me closer. _Each inch of me begging to be with me, enveloped by him_. Tobias pushes the thin jacket off of my shoulders, letting it land on the floor beneath our feet. He slides his hands back down the sides of my stomach, to my waist once again. Hooking his fingers into the waist band of my shorts, pulling down only slightly. He pulls away from the kiss, but his lips still close, as he leans his forehead against mine. "Are you sure?" He whispers breathily as his lips graze against mine, and I stare into his now black eyes, his face almost heavy with desire and restraint. _The same thing I want_. I purse my lips and nod slightly, and he wastes no time connecting our lips again, finally allowing it to turn into something that I didn't know I even wanted until now,

"Tris?" I hear him call my name, but I only barely hear his voice as I tuck my face into his chest, willing the morning to go away because I never want this to end. _I'm afraid I'll never get it back_. "Tris…" Tobias calls me again, and I look up to find his now crystal blue eyes looking up to me once again. "We should get going" he says to me, his voice gruff. I nod barely, and try to get up, but his strong arm encircles me, pulling me back down onto his chest. A smile slips to his lips at the sight of my struggle, but I quickly give up. "Funny," I whisper to him. I watch as his eyes shift, taking in my body, before I look down towards his lips. I press my lips to his, immediately tilting my head barely, my hands find his hair. He groans against my lips and I pull away, "I wish," he mutters, and I suddenly do to. _But I know we can't_. "I love you" he whispers to me, keeping it out little secret, which I enjoy.

"I love you, Tobias" I whisper back for the first time, and I like the way it feels coming off my tongue. _Like something good_. Sadly, he releases my waist and I stand, pulling on my shorts which are thankfully close by, and shrugging on my thin jacket as Tobias pulls on his shoes, already dressed. I slip my shoes, before shoving the gun and knife back into the sides. The thought of it reminding me of when Tobias found the two weapons in my shoes, the giddy smile on his face. His hand slipping into mine pushes the memory away as we both walk back to the room silently. I don't let my mind think, not allowing myself to ruin this moment by thoughts. We make it back and he pulls the door open as we enter, hand and hand. I scan the room, to find everyone there, everyone but Peter, Drew and Adrian. I release Tobias' hand, and go over to the group. "Where's Adrian?" I ask them, and they all look up to me. Their faces blank, but then worried. Christina stands and comes up to me. "We thought she was with you!" she tells me, and my heart immediately drops as the color drains out of my face. "We woke up this morning and Peter, Drew, Adrian, you, and Four were gone."

I only nod, the tears filling my eyes. _They warned me, and I didn't believe it_. I back away, and turn slowly, to find Tobias there just staring at me in shock, as a single tear runs down my face. "They took her, Tobias" I whisper to him, as I subconsciously wrap my arms around his torso, burying my face in his chest as tear after tear run down my face. "They took her."

A/n- Damn! Did that suck? I know I'm messing with your guys' emotions, because one minute Tris is depressed and the next her and Four are um… 'Spending some time',(by the way, how did I do writing that part? That stuff can be kind of awkward, so let me know how I did in a review) and the next Adrian is gone. So what happened with Adrian? Did she just leave the room? Did the Erudite actually take her? Will Tris go to the Erudite? How will Tobias feel about all of this? Just a few questions for everyone to think about. Let me know some of your answers in reviews, because this is the point in the story where I have multiple choices on what I can do. So yeah, let me know.

On a happier note, 'Saint and The Sinful' premieres on Monday so that is freaking awesome, right? I'm excited, and I can't wait for everyone to read it and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and make sure to review, bye!


	16. Update!

Hey, everyone! I want to make this quick!

First things first, did anyone watch Theo and Shai on Google Live Stream today? It was hilarious!

Okay, so for the big announcement. The next chapter of Last of Us will be posted after my laptop committed suicide, and from then on I will continue my regular update schedule until the story isn't finished. Also, Contingent will be released! Both will be posted on March 17th, the date that the Insurgent sound track is released also. And from then on out, they will both follow my regular update schedule of Tuesdays and Fridays!

Exciting news hm? Yep, so I will talk to ya'll then! Thanks for reading!


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